THE  SHORT  COURSE  SERIES 


THE   SON  OF  MAN 


BS  2586  .ZA  191A 

Zenos,  Andrew  C.  1855-1942. 

The  Son  of  Man 


THE   SHORT   COURSE   SERIES 


THE   SON  OF   MAN 


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THE  SON  OF  MAN 

STUDIES  IN  THE  GOSPEL  OF  MARK 

BV 

ANDREW  C.  ZENOS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1914 


TO 

THE    MEMORY    OF 
RUTH   ELSIE  and  WALTER  ANDREW 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

1.  The  Son  of  Man  Foreshadowed    .       ,       3 

Mark  xiv.  21. 

II.  The  Son  of  Man  in  a  Sinful  World   .      21 

Mark  ii.  lo,  ii. 

III.  The  Son  of  Man  and  Human  Institu- 

tions     37 

Mark  ii.  27,  28. 

IV.  The  Son  of  Man:  Redemptive  Ministry      55 

Mark  x.  45. 

V.  The  Son  of  Man  a  Victim       »       •       .     ^^ 

Mark  ix.  31,  x.  33,  xiv.  21,  41. 

VI.  The  Son  of  Man  Triumphant.       .       .      95 

Mark  ix.  9,  viii.  38. 

VII.  The  Son  of  Man  in  the  World's  Future    115 

Mark  xiii.  26,  xiv.  62. 

Appendix     .......      133 

Index i37 


But  Thee,  but  Thee,  O  Sovereign,  Seer  of  Time, 

But  Thee,  O  Poet's  Poet,  Wisdom's  Tongue, 

But  Thee,  O  man's  best  Man,  O  love's  best  Love, 

O  perfect  life  in  perfect  labor  writ, 

O  all  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King,  or  Priest, — 

What  if  or  yet,  what  mote,  what  flaw,  what  lapse, 

What  least  defect  or  shadow  of  defect. 

What  rumor  tattled  by  an  enemy. 

Of  inference  loose,  what  lack  of  grace 

Even  in  torture's  grasp,  or  sleep's,  or  death's,— 

Oh,  what  amiss  may  I  forgive  in  Thee, 

Jesus,  good  Paragon,  thou  Crystal  Christ? 

Sidney  Lanier. 


THE  SON  OF  MAN  FORESHADOWED 


I 


THE  SON  OF  MAN  FORE- 
SHADOWED 

Mark  xiv.  21  ;  Dan.  vii.  13  (John  iii.  13,  xii.  34; 
Matt.  xxvi.  24  ;  Luke  xviii.  31,  xxii.  22). 

Some  phrases,  like  living  beings,  have  inter- 
esting histories.  They  are  born,  they  develop 
to  fullness  and  power,  they  serve  high  ends, 
and  perhaps  pass  away.  The  title  Son  of 
Man,  which  Jesus  used  to  designate  Himself, 
is  one  of  these.  It  was  not  invented  by 
Him.  Yet  He  used  it  constantly  as  if  some- 
thing in  its  make  up  or  history  had  made 
Him  fond  of  it.  He  identified  Himself  with 
it,  and  it  with  Himself  in  a  way  which  has 
suggested  to  some  the  notion  that  He  used 
it  simply  as  a  substitute  for  the  pronoun  I. 
This  is  certainly  not  the  case.  And  yet  the 
way  in  which  He  separated  it  from  all  other 

3 


The  Son  of  Man 

uses  and  made  it  the  vehicle  of  His  own 
thought  is  more  than  interesting  —  it  is 
significant. 

Quite  as  significant  is  the  strangeness  of 
the  phrase  to  other  New  Testament  writers, 
and  even  to  the  immediate  disciples  of  Jesus. 
If  it  is  not  true  that  they  never  used  it,  it 
is  true  that  they  used  it  because  they  could 
not  avoid  it — not  because  they  found  it 
ready  to  hand  to  do  service  as  a  vehicle  of 
their  thought.  Outside  of  the  circle  of  His 
followers  it  is  still  less  familiar.  It  perplexes 
the  multitude.  In  attempting  to  familiarise 
them  with  its  purport,  in  solving  the  per- 
plexity of  the  multitude  as  to  its  meaning, 
His  first  care  was  to  impress  it  on  them  that 
though  the  source  of  His  power  was  divine, 
its  nature  and  exercise  were  to  be  in  the 
highest  sense  human — humane^  it  would  be 
better  to  say,  were  it  not  that  even  that 
beautiful  word  is  scarcely  full  enough  of  the 
meaning  infused  into  humanity  by  Jesus.  It 
suggests — 


The  Son  of  Man  Foreshadowed 

I.  Humanity  in  Contrast  with 
Brutality. 

Humanity  is  distinguished  from  brutality 
by  intelligence,  compassion,  and  aspiration. 
Intelligence  changes  the  stubborn  ignorance 
of  the  brute  to  courage.  Compassion 
utilises  power  in  the  service  of  love. 
Aspiration  links  all  resources  with  the 
highest  ends. 

"Who  is  this  Son  of  Man?"  The 
question  was  asked  by  those  who  should 
have  known  the  answer.  They  did  not, 
because  they  had  allowed  themselves  to  be 
led  by  their  thoughts  of  who  the  Messiah 
ought  to  be.  How  often  we  allow  our 
prejudgments  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  very 
plain  things  that  enter  into  our  lives.  The 
figure  of  the  Son  of  Man  stood  very  clearly 
on  the  pages  of  Daniel. 

It  is  true,  before  the  days  of  Daniel  to 
speak  of  a  "  son  of  man  "  was  to  indicate 
human  frailty  and  liability  to  failure.  It  had 
been  said,  "God  is  not  man  that  he  should 
lie,  neither  the  son  of  man  that  he  should 

5 


The  Son  of  Man 

repent"  (Num.  xxiii.  19)  ;  and  when  Ezekiel 
was  addressed  as  "  Son  of  man,"  it  was  in 
order  that  he  might  be  made  conscious  of 
his  dependence  on  divine  help  and  grace  for 
his  work.  But  human  weakness  receded 
into  the  background  and  dignity  and  value 
into  the  foreground,  as  the  Psalmist  took  up 
the  phrase,  and  after  placing  before  his  eye 
the  humble  and  meaningless  side  of  human 
nature,  he  set  over  against  it  the  great  and  noble 
as  an  endowment  from  on  high.  "  What  is 
man  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him,  and  the 
son  of  man  that  thou  visitest  him  ?  "  Yes, 
"  Thou  hast  made  him  but  lower  than  God, 
and  crownedst  him  with  glory  and  honour. 
Thou  makest  him  to  have  dominion  over 
the  works  of  thy  hands  ;  thou  hast  put  all 
things  under  his  feet."  Man  was  to  be 
looked  at  not  merely  against  the  background 
of  God's  infinite  greatness  and  holiness,  but 
also  against  that  of  the  lower  creation.  If, 
as  placed  in  the  foreground  of  the  picture 
in  which  God  is  the  background,  man 
appears  puny  and  feeble  and  unworthy, 
placed  on  the  canvas  with  the  inanimate  and 

6 


The  Son  of  Man  Foreshadowed 

brute  world  behind  him  he  looms  large,  he 
is  seen  to  possess  excellences  and  merits 
that  make  him  unique  and  supreme. 

The  occasion  which  furnished  the  revelation 
of  this  view  of  man  was  the  struggle  of  the 
Jewish  nation  with  the  great  forces  of  the 
Gentile  world  during  the  Exile  and  after. 
The  Jews  never  aspired  to  rule  more  than 
their  own  well-defined  corner  of  the  world. 
But  they  came  in  touch  with  the  races 
successively  dominant  to  the  east  of  them 
in  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris, 
and  they  were  enabled  to  realise  that  the  lust 
for  world  dominion  could  take  the  central 
place  among  the  motives  of  national  life. 
Assyria,  Babylonia,  Persia,  and  Macedonia 
had  actually  come  near  reaching  this  goal. 
But  each  of  them,  as  it  successively  climbed 
up  to  the  place  of  power,  had  undergone  a 
process  of  moral  decline.  The  last  of  these 
world-powers  had  shown  a  special  tendency 
toward  inward  disintegration.  It  was  felt  that 
the  end  was  near,  and  with  it  the  whole  series 
of  non-moral,  and  hence  sub-human,  powers 
must  pass  away.     To  the  Jewish  mind,  with 

7 


The  Son  of  Man 

its  firm  grasp  on  the  truth  that  the  heart 
and  essence  of  the  universe  is  the  righteous 
will  of  a  personal  God,  the  breaking  up  of 
the  purely  natural  era  of  brute  force  must 
necessarily  bring  into  view  the  moral  order. 
And  this  order  was  not  a  new  creation,  but 
the  real  and  inner  life  of  the  universe.  It 
was  not  to  be  brought  into  existence,  only 
revealed  as  already  maturing  within  the 
decrepit  and  decadent  succession  of  world- 
powers.  But  when  revealed,  this  inner  and 
divine  principle  would  manifest  itself  as  in 
utter  contradiction  and  contrast  to  all  its 
predecessors.  Since  brute  force  had  been 
their  characteristic,  human  intelligence  and 
humane  feeling  would  be  its  characteristic. 
It  would  command  indeed,  and  in  this 
respect  it  might  be  arrayed  with  them  as 
another,  and  the  last  in  the  succession  of 
powers — but  the  note  and  the  distinctive 
sign  of  its  dominion  would  be  humanness 
just  where  those  that  had  preceded  had 
shown  brutality. 

Was  it  not   to  express   the  will  and  the 
nature  of  God  ?      But  if  man  is  made  in 

8 


The  Son  of  Man  Foreshadowed 

the  image  of  God,  the  rule  of  God  on  earth 
must  be  godlike,  that  is  to  say,  human.  It 
is  this  that  the  apocalyptist-prophet  was 
endeavouring  to  put  before  his  sorely  perse- 
cuted and  oppressed  fellow-believers.  The 
dominion  of  the  brute  force  was  destined  to 
pass  away,  and  its  place  on  the  throne  was 
to  be  occupied  by  a  figure  the  very  opposite 
of  brutal — that  of  the  Son  of  Man.  Nay, 
the  real  throne  was  already  occupied  by  this 
Figure.  While  the  world  was  witnessing 
the  rule  of  an  outward  and  visible  monarch 
on  a  throne  of  earthly  splendour,  the  heavenly 
throne  was  neither  vacant  nor  filled  by  a 
potentate  of  brutal  nature.  The  Ancient 
of  Days  had  as  an  assessor  the  Son  of  Man. 

Thus,  the  Son  of  Man  was  at  the  same 
time  a  future  and  a  present  power  to  be 
reckoned  with.  While  the  genius  of 
Hebrew  prophecy  seized  upon  the  future 
of  this  figure  and  evolved  the  idea  of  the 
Messiah,  the  essence  of  the  thought  shows 
a  deeper  and  more  abiding  importance  in 
the  present  significance  of  it. 

The  Son  of  Man  "  which  is  in  heaven  " 

9 


The  Son  of  Man 

and  a  present  Sovereign,  has  ever  been  also 
a  future  ruler.     To-day  He  is  sovereign  in 
a  fuller  sense,  because  He  once  manifested 
Himself  upon  earth.     From  the  right  hand 
of  the  Ancient  of  Days  He    came  to   take 
"dominion  and  glory  and  a  kingdom,  that 
all  the   people    and    nations    and    languages 
should    serve    him.      His    dominion    is    an 
everlasting   dominion,  which    shall  not  pass 
away,  and    his    kingdom    shall    not    be   de- 
stroyed."    And  His  reign,  as  in  the  ancient 
vision,  is  still   the   reign   of  the    human  as 
contrasted    with    the    brutal    in    the    world. 
The    question    whether    in    the    vision    of 
Daniel    the  Son    of   Man    is    an    individual 
king  or  a   racial    kingdom   is  of  secondary 
importance.     The  essential  idea  in  it  is  that 
the  reign  of  sheer  force  is  to  be  supplanted 
by    the    predominance    of    intelligence    and 
goodwill. 

But  the  world  has  not  altogether  discarded 
sheer  force.  The  brutal  principle  still 
struggles  for  ascendancy.  The  lust  for 
conquest,  greed  for  territory,  the  subjuga- 
tion  of  weaker    peoples    by    stronger,   the 

lO 


The  Son  of  Man  Foreshadowed 

cruel  exactions  of  the  hard  earnings  of  the 
subject  race  by  some  autocratic  monarch — 
all  these,  in  spite  of  change  of  method,  still 
continue.  But  they  continue  no  longer 
unchallenged,  no  longer  recognised  as  the 
normal  and  ideal  for  all  mankind.  Side  by 
side  with  them  has  arisen  the  kingdom  of 
the  Son  of  Man, — the  reign  of  the  Humane 
One, — who  desires  and  aims  that  all  shall 
have  equity  and  justice  dealt  out  to  them. 
The  old  regime  of  force  is  still  carrying  on 
its  administration.  But  beside  it  there 
stands  the  new  one.  There  are  two  ideals 
challenging  comparison.  "Look  on  this 
picture,  and  on  this.'*  And  the  Son  of  Man 
is  content  to  let  the  case  rest  upon  this 
appeal.  The  more  earnestly  and  persist- 
ently the  contrast  is  insisted  on,  the  more 
rapidly  international  and  social  brutality  will 
be  rebuked,  shamed,  and  forced  to  hide  its 
ugliness  ;  and  the  more  hopefully  we  may 
look  to  the  disappearance  of  brutality  and 
the  triumph  of  humanity. 

Perhaps    no    single    character   in   modern 
history  more  signally  typifies  the  dominance 

II 


The  Son  of  Man 

of  force  which,  according  to  the  vision  of 
Daniel,  the  Son  of  Man  was  to  supersede, 
than  Napoleon  the  Great.  He  bled  half 
Europe  white  with  slaughter  ;  he  deserted 
his  early  principles  for  a  crown  ;  he  broke 
every  pledge  ;  he  ruined  the  land  that  had 
trusted  and  exalted  him,  but  he  was  the 
most  forceful  individual  who  walked  on 
the  earth  in  his  own  day,  or  for  that  matter 
in  any  day  ;  and  mankind  had  not  quite  out- 
grown its  worship  of  force  while  he  lived, 
nor  has  it  as  yet.  He  murdered  prominent 
men  in  cold  blood,  but  he  led  armies  across 
continents  and  over  mountains.  He  over- 
threw the  First  Republic,  but  he  made 
kings  dance  to  his  piping.  He  ploughed 
Europe  with  the  iron  plough  of  his  ambition, 
and  a  hundred  years  have  not  levelled  the 
furrows.  Yet  he  himself  on  his  death-bed 
confessed  Jesus  Christ  mightier  than  himself. 
The  Son  of  Man  had,  according  to  his  con- 
fession, established  a  more  lasting  kingdom. 
But  brutality  as  a  ruling  principle  does 
not  necessarily  work  through  the  forms  of 
empire      or      monarchy.       Overcome     and 

12 


The   Son   of  Man   Foreshadowed 

expelled  as  the  rule  of  kings  and  potentates, 
it  re-enters  through  social  injustice  and 
industrial  inequality.  The  spirit  of  greed, 
the  demon  of  selfishness,  seizes  upon  the 
new  conditions  and  leads  men  to  the  same 
pitilessness,  the  same  cruelty  (only  exercised 
in  subtler  and  more  indirect  forms),  as  those 
shown  by  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  mon- 
archs.  What  matters  it  that  the  crushing, 
mangling,dehumanising  work  is  done  by  social 
and  industrial  machinery  instead  of  by  armed 
hosts  and  uniformed  officials  ?  Nevertheless, 
this  order  too  must  pass  away  and  give  place 
to  the  just  and  humane  reign  of  the  Son  of 
Man. 

2.  Humanity  as  Saving  and  Divine. 

The  Son  of  Man  who  is  in  heaven  was 
to  be  the  means  of  salvation  to  the  whole 
creation.  The  figure  in  the  cloud  seen  by 
Daniel  was  to  rescue  not  Israel  only,  but 
the  whole  world  from  the  dominion  of  the 
brute.  In  the  very  act  of  establishing  His 
own  kinodom  as  extensive  and  world-wide 
as    the    kingdom    He  was    to    displace    and 

53 


The  Son  of  Man 

supplant,  He  would  bring  His  wholesome 
and  beneficent  rule  over  all  mankind.  It  is 
at  this  point  that  Jesus  affiliates  Himself  with 
the  foreshadowed  Son  of  Man.  "And  as 
Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilder- 
ness, even  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted 
up  :  that  whosoever  believeth  may  in  him 
have  eternal  life." 

And  this  is  the  prerogative  of  humanity 
as  distinguished  from  brutality  in  all  ages, 
that  it  rescues  that  which  has  value  from 
waste  and  destruction,  and  gives  it  its  birth- 
right in  the  fair  creation  of  God.  It  is 
only  as  humanity  has  asserted  itself  in  the 
world  that  forces  running  wild  in  nature 
have  been  tamed  and  harnessed  and  com- 
pelled to  do  useful,  edifying  work.  It  is 
only  as  man  has  taken  the  reins  of  control 
over  them  that  winds  and  waves,  light  and 
heat,  magnetism  and  electricity  have  been 
glorified  by  being  placed  in  subjection  to 
higher  and  more  abundant  life  and  health- 
giving  services.  Left  to  themselves,  storms 
and  tides  wear  and  tear  and  pull  down. 
Captured  and  put  to  service  by  man,  they 

14 


The  Son  of  Man  Foreshadowed 

are  transformed  into  means  of  building  up 
and  furthering  onward  the  ends  of  life. 

No  doubt  there  still  remains  much  brutal- 
ity in  the  great  and  terrible  elemental  forces 
of  nature.  Flood  and  earthquake  still  break 
up  and  carry  away  the  creations  of  reason 
and  love.  Icebergs  and  hidden  shoals,  fever 
and  pestilence,  still  in  many  and  unforeseen 
ways  work  havoc  and  ruin,  lamentation  and 
distress ;  but  man  is  from  generation  to 
generation  getting  the  upper  hand  in  this 
terrific  conflict.  Nature,  *'red  in  tooth  and 
claw,"  is  being  taught  to  respect  and,  though 
unconsciously,  to  do  the  works  of  righteous- 
ness and  goodwill. 

The  work  of  the  Saviour  of  mankind  is 
but  the  highest  manifestation  of  this  universal 
law.  It  is  the  man  in  Jesus  Christ  that  saves 
His  brethren  from  the  ravages  of  the  brute 
force  of  sin.  The  ancient  theologians  under- 
stood this  principle  very  well  when  they 
declined  to  accept  or  sanction  any  doctrine 
of  the  person  of  Christ  which  assumed  that 
the  Saviour  was  not  possessed  of  a  complete 
humanity.      The  faith  of  Christians  would 

15 


The  Son  of  Man 

never  consent  to  a  Christ  with  a  mere  phan- 
tom physical  nature  or  a  mutilated  psycho- 
logical constitution  ;  it  would  have  none  of 
a  humanity  from  which  the  full  power  of 
manhood  was  strained  out.  It  was  as  man 
that  the  Saviour  must  save.  It  was  the 
"  Son  of  Man  "  alone  who  could  "  seek  and 
save  that  which  was  lost/* 

The  hope  of  the  seer,  and  with  it  the  hope 
of  all  the  ages,  would  be  a  vain  one  indeed 
if  the  Son  of  Man  in  whom  they  trusted 
were  nothing  more  than  human,  if  His 
humanity  sprang  from  the  earth  and  were 
burdened  by  the  earthly  heritage  of  infirmity 
and  failure.  This  it  is  not.  He  is  the  Son 
of  Man  "which  is  in  heaven/'  In  the  vision 
He  stands  beside  the  Ancient  of  Days.  If 
there  is  anything  wholesome  in  man's  nature, 
it  is  because  he  has  been  patterned  after  a 
divine  ideal.  If  he  was  given  "dominion 
over  "  the  brute  creation,  if  he  was  declared 
"  better  than  the  fowls,"  if  it  was  said  of  him, 
"how  much  is  a  man  better  than  a  sheep," 
it  is  because  there  is  that  in  him  which  links 
him  with  God  Himself. 

t6 


The  Son  of  Man   Foreshadowed 

He  who  is  the  Son  of  Man  is  also  the 
Son  of  God.  It  is  no  mere  accident  that 
these  two  titles  have  become  fixed  on  the 
same  person.  He  is  the  Son  of  Man  because 
he  is  the  Son  of  God.  Theology  has  worked 
at  the  problem  of  the  person  of  Christ  for 
nineteen  centuries,  but  it  has  scarcely  ad- 
vanced beyond  the  fundamental  facts  of  the 
earliest  Christian  experience  which  kindles  at 
the  touch  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  enabling 
devout  souls  to  recognise  in  Jesus  the 
perfect  man  and  the  perfect  God.  He  is 
perfect  man  because  He  is  the  perfect  image 
of  a  certain  nature  and  aspect  of  God. 

The  heart  of  the  message  of  Christianity 
is  that  God  and  man  are  somehow  kin.  It 
was  possible  for  God  to  become  man,  because 
in  man  there  was  that  which  could  be  affiliated 
and  linked  with  God,  and  in  God  there  was 
that  which  could  adapt  itself  to  man  and  live 
in  association  with  man.  God  did  become 
man  in  the  Son  of  Man,  because  there  was  in 
His  heart  the  yearning  for  the  responsive 
love  of  the  creature  He  had  made  in  His  own 
image,  His  child. 

17 


The  Son  of  Man 

The  painter  creates  his  masterpiece,  and 
every  lover  of  beauty  is  caught  by  its  charm 
and  won  by  its  grace  to  higher  purposes  and 
pure  motives  ;  the  musician  pours  his  soul 
into  his  composition,  and  those  who  drink 
in  its  soothing  or  inspiring  strains  go  into 
the  world  to  achieve  or  endure  what  would 
have  been  impossible  before.  It  is  not 
because  the  painting  consisted  of  colours  and 
canvas  of  a  certain  kind,  or  the  music  of  a 
given  number  of  vibrations  in  the  air,  but 
because  the  spirit  of  the  artist  imparted 
itself  through  the  materials  to  spirits  needing 
help.  Thus  the  Son  of  Man  saves  because 
his  humanity  is  the  humanity  of  God. 

Nietzsche  looked  for  the  solution  of  the  pro- 
blem of  human  life  in  the  coming  of  a  being 
of  transcendent  power,  the  Superman  ;  but  if 
Power  be  force  only,  the  world  has  known 
enough  of  its  dominion,  and  it  has  known  it 
to  its  grief  and  disappointment.  The  rise  of 
a  superman  of  mere  Power  would  be  a  rever- 
sion to  brutality.  The  hope  of  the  world 
must  be  fixed  in  something  better,  the  reign 
of  love,  which  is  the  reign  of  the  Son  of  Man. 

i8 


II 

THE  SON  OF  MAN  IN  A  SINFUL  WORLD 


II 

THE  SON  OF  MAN  IN  A  SINFUL 
WORLD 

Mark  ii.  lo,  ii  (Matt.  ix.  6;   Luke  v.  24). 

There  is  an  explanation  of  the  phrase  Son 
of  Man  which  makes  it  equivalent  to  mere 
man.  In  support  of  this  explanation  the 
appeal  is  made  to  the  Aramaic,  which  Jesus 
must  have  used.  Since  in  that  language  it 
was  customary  to  call  any  man  son  of  man, 
Jesus,  it  is  said,  used  the  expression  in  this  its 
ordinary  sense.  What  He  attributes  to  the 
Son  of  Man  may  be  said  of  every  man  as 
man.  This  explanation,  however,  fails  to 
explain  the  very  first  appearance  of  the 
phrase  upon  the  lips  of  Jesus,  which,  if  we 
take  the  Gospel  of  Mark  as  a  basis,  occurs 
in  connection  with  the  healing  of  the  para- 
lytic.     "Thy    sins    be  forgiven    thee,"    He 

21 


The  Son  of  Man 

says  to  the  sufferer,  and  to  the  mystified 
bystanders  :  "  The  Son  of  Man  has  power 
to  forgive  sins."  What  could  He  have  meant 
by  the  assertion  that  "  any  man  "  had  power 
to  forgive  sin,  when  to  demonstrate  His  own 
right  to  do  so  He  thought  it  necessary  im- 
mediately afterwards  to  perform  a  miracle  ? 

Whatever  may  be  the  usage  of  this  phrase 
from  the  linguistic  point  of  view,  when  Jesus 
undertook  to  declare  the  sin  of  the  paralytic 
forgiven.  He  was  doing  more  than  any  man 
had  any  authority  to  do  as  a  man.  The 
astonishment  of  the  scribes,  who  regarded  His 
words  as  blasphemous,  was  justified  if  Jesus 
claimed  to  be  nothing  more  than  man  ;  and 
this  precisely  He  aims  to  meet  when  He  takes 
up  the  challenge  and  shows  by  a  superhuman 
deed  that  He  had  a  right  to  the  more  than 
human  declaration  He  had  just  made.  It  was 
not  necessary  that  He  should  have  claimed  a 
divine  nature,  but  it  was  necessary  that  He 
should  establish  His  right  to  a  special  authority 
because  of  a  special  relation  to  the  seat  of  all 
authority.  All  sin  is  against  God,  and  God 
alone,  if  any  one,  can  annul  the  transgression 

22 


Son  of  Man  in  a  Sinful  World 

of  His  own  law.  Whoever  would  proclaim 
that  God  has  done  this  in  any  individual 
instance,  must  have  some  secret  or  manifest 
connection  with  God,  enabling  him  to  speak 
for  God  and  in  the  place  of  God. 

But  the  controversy  as  to  the  right  of 
Jesus  to  forgive  sins  is  of  intensely  practical 
significance,  in  that  it  shows  Him  at  the  very 
first  glance  in  His  attitude  and  relation  towards 
human  sin.  His  first  impact  with  human 
life  brings  it  into  view.  How  could  it  be 
otherwise  ?  If  life  is  pervaded  by  the  baleful 
and  subtle  presence  of  sin,  wherever  the  sin- 
less and  ideal  man  comes  into  touch  with  life 
he  must  see  its  work  and  effect.  What  did 
He  think  of  it  ?     What  did  He  see  in  it  ? 

First  He  recognised  it  as  a  reality  ;  and  a 
reality  with  no  right  to  exist.  The  ideal 
man,  the  man  as  he  came  at  the  first  creation 
from  the  hands  of  God,  must  in  the  nature 
of  the  case  look  upon  sin  as  something  alien 
to  himself.  He  cannot  close  his  eyes  to  it. 
In  himself  or  in  others  it  cannot  but  be 
contrary  to  the  normal  order  of  things.  Sin 
is  what  ought  not  to  be. 

23 


The  Son  of  Man  * 

I.  The  Recognition  of  Sin. 

No  matter  how  eagerly  then  the  ideal  man, 
no  matter  how  eagerly  Jesus  in  the  case  of 
the  paralytic,  may  have  desired  the  happiness 
of  all  the  sons  of  men.  He  could  never  have 
said  to  them  :  "  Do  not  think  of  your  sins, 
sin  is  an  unreality,  a  figment  of  the  diseased 
mind  ;  eliminate  it  from  your  thought." 
"The  modern  man,*'  says  Sir  Oliver  Lodge, 
"  does  not  concern  himself  about  his  sins." 
Of  course  he  means  that,  unlike  the  mediaeval 
man,  the  modern  man  does  not  allow  himself 
to  be  morbidly  weighed  down  by  the  dread 
of  failure  to  work  out  his  own  salvation. 
The  modern  man  knows  that  failure  to 
obtain  salvation  is  not  so  much  the  conse- 
quence of  neglect  of  arduous  duties  and 
painful  labours  as  the  refusal  to  accept  the 
free  gift  of  God.  He  has  learned  the  lesson 
of  his  Heavenly  Father's  abundant  grace. 
He  does  not  worry  himself  about  his  sins, 
because  he  has  been  assured  that  they  need 
not  stand  between  him  and  his  Maker. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  say- 

24 


Son  of  Man  in  a  Sinful  World 

ing  of  Sir  Oliver  has  been  frequently  mis- 
understood, it  does  represent  a  thought 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  thought  of  Jesus. 

Neither  did  Jesus  detach  it  from  the 
personality  of  the  sinner.  It  was  the  sin  of 
the  sinner,  thy  sin}  It  need  not  necessarily 
be  assumed  that  the  disease  of  the  man  was 
the  direct  result  of  his  sin.  But  sin  of  some 
kind  he  had,  and  it  was  standing  in  the  way 
of  his  welfare.  It  was  some  sin  known  to 
him,  sin  that  had  distressed  and  harassed 
him,  sin  whose  presence  in  his  life  had 
darkened  that  life  and  cast  the  pale  hue  of 
sadness  into  its  incidents. 

Moreover,  Jesus  did  not  cut  the  relation 
between  the  man's  sin  and  his  responsibility. 
There  is  an  easy  way  of  absolving  evil-doers 
in  our  days  by  representing  them  as  rather 
the  victims  than  offenders.  The  blame  is 
laid  to  circumstances,  to  heredity,  to  environ- 
ment, to  evil  companionships,  to  anything 
else  but  the  choice  of  the  offender  himself. 
We  are  tempted  to  sum  up  our  judgment  in 

^  The  surest  fact  about  sin  in  my  life  is  just  that  my 
sin  is  my  sin  "  (P.  Carnegie  Simpson). 

25 


The  Son  of  Man 

the  compassionate  expression,  "  Poor  fellow, 
he  couldn't  help  it.'*  Not  so  Jesus.  He 
fixes  the  responsibility  on  the  sinner.  "  Thy 
sin,''  Never  did  he  extenuate  the  evil  deed, 
or  excuse  the  evil-doer.  "Doth  no  one 
condemn  thee  ? "  he  said  to  the  one  above  all 
others  who  might  have  been  viewed  as  the 
victim  of  others.  "Neither  do  I  condemn 
thee  :  go,  and  sin  no  more."  She  had  sinned. 
She  was  responsible  for  her  sin.  She  must 
abandon  her  sin.  These  are  the  fundamentals 
of  His  outlook  on  the  matter.  These  are 
the  essentials  of  His  attitude  on  sin  always. 
His  impact  with  human  life  brings  it  into 
view,  and  He  recognises  it  with  all  its  ends. 
Again,  Jesus  sees  sin  as  working  out 
destruction  and  death  in  the  world  of  human 
life.  It  lies  at  the  root  of  disease  and 
suffering.  Humanity  instinctively  joins  the 
suffering  of  the  world  with  the  sin  of  the 
world.  In  doing  so,  it  does,  of  course,  allow 
itself  to  be  misled  into  confusion  of  thought. 
It  is  true  that  sin  and  disease  of  body  are 
inextricably  associated,  but  it  is  not  true  that 
every  disorder  in  the  body  is  due  to  a  special 

26 


Son  of  Man  in  a  Sinful  World 

sin  of  the  individual  who  is  afflicted.  It  is 
true  that  all  illness  is  somehow  due  to  the 
transgression  of  divine  law  ;  but  it  is  not 
true  that  in  getting  rid  of  disease  one  always 
gets  rid  of  the  sin  that  caused  it.  It  is  not 
true  that  when  the  root  of  the  disease  in  sin 
is  found  and  plucked  out,  that  the  diseased 
condition  is  always  and  at  once  removed. 
The  chain  of  results  that  sin  has  started  into 
motion  becomes  somehow  independent.  It 
is  easy  to  break  the  dam  and  start  the  flow 
of  the  water  in  a  reservoir.  It  is  easy  to 
begin  the  process  of  ruin  and  devastation. 
And  it  may  be  easy  enough  to  repair  the 
breach,  to  stop  the  torrent  from  flowing. 
But  it  is  certainly  not  easy  to  restore  the 
crop  that  has  been  washed  out  by  its  roots, 
to  rebuild  the  bridges  that  have  been  under- 
mined and  tumbled  together  into  unshapely 
masses  in  the  river-beds,  to  clean  up  the 
streets  and  replace  the  furniture  into  the 
houses  from  which  it  was  floated  out  into 
the  fields.  It  is  a  moment's  work  to  break 
the  physical  constitution  by  disregarding  or 
violating  one  of  God's  wise  provisions  for  its 

27 


The  Son  of  Man 

welfare  and  completeness.  But  It  takes  years 
to  give  back  to  the  complicated  organism  its 
primitive  ease  in  functioning  and  producing 
the  living  forces  of  a  living,  unified  activity. 

To  eliminate  sin  is  a  divine  work  ;  and  to 
God  all  things  are  possible.  To  regain  what 
has  been  lost  by  sin  is  man's  part,  and  it 
may  take  years  to  cleanse  the  system  of  the 
brood  of  germs  which  have  rushed  in  with 
the  weakening  of  the  body,  to  give  elasticity 
and  resiliency  to  the  tissues  that  have  been 
devitalised  and  stiffened,  or  to  knit  together 
those  that  have  been  torn  and  left  with 
ragged  edges,  incapable  of  knitting  them- 
selves together. 

The  connections  between  sin  and  disease 
are  not  on  the  surface,  and  each  of  these  two 
evils  must  be  treated  by  itself.  Nevertheless 
disease  is  a  consequence  of  sin,  and  to  see 
disease  is  to  the  healthy  minded,  ideal  man, 
to  see  sin  behind  it. 

2.  The  Son  of  Man  Condemns  Sin. 

But  Jesus,  when  He  first  touched  human 
life,  did  more  than  recognise  sin.     He  began 

28 


Son  of  Man  in  a  Sinful  World 

a  warfare  on  it.  He  fought  it.  He  assumed 
from  the  very  first  that  it  ought  not  to  be, 
that  it  must  be  negatived  and  cancelled,  that 
its  power  must  be  broken,  its  effects  de- 
stroyed, its  hold  loosened,  its  sting  removed. 

He  knew  it  would  be  a  long  and  hard 
struggle.  He  knew  it  would  cost  many  a 
pang,  many  a  sigh  ;  that  it  would  require 
the  sacrifice  of  self.  He  realised  that  he 
must  go  on  the  painful  search  for  the  lost, 
that  he  must  entreat  and  beseech,  persuade 
and  intercede  ;  but  he  knew  also  that  in  a 
universe  created  and  controlled  by  his 
heavenly  Father,  there  is  no  permanent 
place  for  sin.  He  knew  that  it  is  not  the 
natural  man,  but  the  denatured  man  who  is 
sinful.  Whenever  the  first  impulses  towards 
a  return  show  themselves,  the  victims  of  sin 
are  to  see  the  certain  pledge  of  its  exter- 
mination. 

The  Pharisees,  accustomed  to  measure  all 
things  by  rigid  standards  of  holiness,  wondered 
at  His  associating  with  sinners.  They  were 
certainly  right  in  their  efforts  to  keep  their 
own  lives  free  from  contamination.       They 

29 


The  Son  of  Man 

must  have  seen  that  He  no  less  than  them- 
selves was  eager  for  a  stainless  life.  But 
they  could  not  imagine  that,  even  though 
unsullied  as  yet  by  His  touch  with  sinners, 
He  could  always  remain  so.  And  then,  why 
should  He  care  for  sinners  ?  Why  work  in 
such  a  hopelessly  barren  field  ?  These 
publicans  and  harlots,  were  they  not  beyond 
the  reach  of  all  redeeming  influences  ? 
Reasoning  after  this  manner  they  were  con- 
tent to  leave  sin  alone  if  it  would  leave  them 
alone.  Their  attitude  toward  it  amounted 
to  a  pact  of  armed  but  inactive  hostility. 
To  Jesus,  hostility  against  sin  meant  an 
aggressive  warfare  at  any  cost  to  Himself. 
The  ravages  which  it  worked  in  the  physical 
and  social  lives  of  men  must  serve  to  arouse 
in  them  some  reaction  against  it,  even  though 
crude  and  low  as  far  as  its  motive  was  con- 
cerned. They  must  be  made  to  feel  the 
need  of  something  better  than  the  husks  on 
which  sin  was  starving  them.  Then  would 
Jesus  seize  upon  this  element  in  their  lives 
and  build  it  into  the  foundation  of  their 
salvation.      "The  Son  of  Man  is  come  to 

30 


Son  of  Man  In  a  Sinful  World 

seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost."  Thus 
Jesus  never  ceased  destroying  "the  works 
of  Satan." 

There  is  much  to  hearten  the  disciple  of 
Jesus  to-day  in  the  work  of  saving  the  world. 
In  two  opposite  directions  sin  works  out 
apparently  incurable  results.  On  one  side 
it  generates  a  shell  of  selfishness,  isolating  its 
victim  like  the  hard  crustacean,  impermeable, 
rough  and  stone-like  armament.  All  ap- 
proaches to  the  inner  man  seem  impossible 
through  this  shell.  This  is  the  peculiar  form 
in  which  it  appears  in  those  whom  the  world 
regards  as  better  conditioned.  The  shell 
may  not  always  be  the  same.  In  some 
instances  it  may  be  high  intellectuality,  in 
others  aesthetic  refinement,  in  others  social 
standing  due  to  wealth  and  exclusiveness. 
In  all  it  is  equally  potent  as  a  barrier  to 
approach.  The  disciple  of  Jesus  is  likely  to 
despair  of  the  redemption  of  such. 

Again  in  another  direction  sin  may  create 
an  atmosphere  of  evil,  through  which  the 
disciple  of  Jesus  may  imagine  that  he  sees 
death   and   corruption    and    nothing   more. 

31 


The  Son  of  Man 

But  the  Son  of  Man  knew  that  under  the 
offensive  aspect  of  the  lower  as  well  as  under 
the  forbidding  cover  of  the  higher  type  of 
sinner  there  was  that  which  called  for  effort 
to  save,  and  that  in  both  cases  effort  properly 
put  forth  must  find  response. 

Just  one  type  of  sin  He  found  beyond 
reach,  and  that  was  the  suicidal  sin  against 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  that  from  its  nature 
was  impossible  to  detect.  Though,  therefore, 
the  warning  might  be  given  that  there  is 
such  a  sin,  practically  it  cannot  be  taken  into 
account,  since  it  gives  no  evidence  of  itself 
to  the  outside  world  by  which  it  may  be 
recognised. 

3.  The  Conquest  of  Sin. 

Jesus  met  sin  and  recognised  it.  He 
saw  sin  and  declared  Himself  an  enemy  of 
it.     He  fouorht  it  because  He  saw  in  it  the 

o 

destroyer  of  God's  children.  But  He  did 
more  than  this.  He  conquered  sin.  "  Thy 
sins  are  forgiven  thee."  The  Pharisees 
were  right.  It  was  no  light  thing  to  utter 
that  momentous    declaration.     It   was   easy 

32 


Son  of  Man  in  a  Sinful  World 

enough  to  pronounce  the  words  ;  but  to 
give  effect  to  them,  to  show  that  the  facts 
justified  them,  that  the  person  to  whom  they 
were  addressed  was  indeed  and  in  truth 
cleansed  of  his  guilt  and  freed  from  the 
power  of  sin,  that  was  a  different  matter. 
It  was  no  empty  formula,  no  magic  incanta- 
tion, no  hocus  pocus  that  the  sinful  man 
needed.  This  paralytic,  it  is  likely,  had 
had  enough  of  magic  and  empty  formulas 
in  the  vain  effort  to  regain  his  wholeness. 
What  he  needed  was  an  assurance  backed 
by  reality,  and  Jesus  could  give  that  to  him. 
Jesus  could  give  him  the  assurance  of  sin 
forgiven  because  He  knew  God's  nature  and 
will,  and  He  was  Himself  convinced  of  His 
own  infallible  knowledge  of  an  unchallenge- 
able right  to  declare  the  will  of  God.  But 
even  more  than  this,  Jesus  was  aware  that 
His  own  greatest  achievement  would  be 
through  His  life  and  death  to  make  away 
with  sin  as  a  barrier  between  God  and  man. 
It  was  later  that  He  said  of  His  own  mission, 
"  The  Son  of  Man  came  to  give  his  life  a 
ransom    for  many " ;   and    it  was    later  that 


The  Son  of  Man 

He  declared  in  the  Institution  which  was  to 
perpetuate  His  memory  that  His  "blood," 
(His  life)  was  being  poured  for  "  the 
remission  of  sins  "  ;  but  at  no  time  in  His 
experience  could  He  have  failed  to  realise 
that  His  chief  work  was  the  conquest  of  sin. 

When  men  face  sin  in  the  world  a  serious 
problem  is  raised.  What  does  its  presence 
mean  ?  Is  it  a  reality  ?  Is  it  a  permanent 
and  inalienable  factor  of  human  life  ^  Is  it 
an  easy  foe  to  overcome  ?  Must  each  man 
grapple  with  his  enemy  in  his  own  unaided 
strength  ?  Questions  that  will  not  down, 
questions  that  demand  and  must  be 
answered.  Does  Jesus  give  us  any  help 
in  meeting  and  answering  them  ? 

He  assures  us  that  sin  ought  not  to  be  ; 
that  man  cannot  rid  himself  of  it  in  his  own 
strength  ;  that  he  need  not  fight  it  alone  ; 
that  the  Son  of  Man  is  present  with  him  in 
his  struggles,  not  to  make  it  unnecessary  for 
him  to  fight,  but  to  guide  the  warfare  and 
take  upon  Himself  the  larger  part  of  the  pain 
of  the  struggle,  and  that  in  the  end  victory 
is  assured. 

34 


Ill 


THE  SON  OF  MAN  AND  HUMAN 
INSTITUTIONS 


Ill 


THE  SON  OF   MAN  AND  HUMAN 
INSTITUTIONS 

Mark  ii.  27,  28  (Matt.  xii.  8  ;  Luke  vi.  5). 

Much  may  be  learned  from  the  way  in 
which  Jesus  met  criticism  of  His  teaching 
and  objections  to  His  conduct.  In  contro- 
versy as  such  He  took  no  special  interest. 
Neither  did  He  care  to  merely  defend  Himself 
or  His  views  as  a  matter  of  vindication.  His 
sole  object  in  taking  notice  of  opposition 
was  to  impress  more  deeply  the  lesson  that 
had  been  but  superficially  learned,  to  clear 
and  disentangle  issues  whose  complexity  had 
given  occasion  to  cavil,  and  to  secure  a  wider 
acceptance  of  eternal  truths. 

To  this  end  He  adapted  His  method  to  the 
nature  of  the  problem  discussed.  He  had 
no  hard  and  fast  logical  ways  of  dealing.      If 


The  Son  of  Man 

the  Issue  involved  was  minor,  He  reasoned 
along  conventional  lines  and  upon  con- 
ventional grounds.  He  used  arguments 
designed  to  persuade  the  minds  of  His 
opponents.  He  took  up  as  it  were  their 
own  weapons  and  used  them.  He  appealed 
to  the  words  of  the  Old  Testament  and  to 
logical  consistency  ;  He  used  the  argumentum 
ad  hotnineniy  the  dilemma,  the  reductio  ad 
ahsurdum  ;  in  such  cases  it  was  not  necessary 
so  much  to  insist  on  the  inherent  and 
eternal  validity  of  what  He  was  standing  for, 
as  to  change  the  attitude  and  method  of 
approach  of  His  opponents  to  the  problems 
of  life. 

If,  however,  the  question  raised  affected 
some  vital  point,  Jesus  did  not  resort  to 
reasoning ;  argument  in  such  cases  ceased 
to  be  means  of  bringing  truth  into  view, 
and  might  even  very  easily  obscure  it  by 
attracting  attention  to  itself.  Since  the 
eternal  rock  foundations  must  be  reached, 
and  since  they  must  be  found  only  by  the 
divinely  given  powers  of  each  man,  the  all- 
important  point  was  to  lead  to  these  primal 

38 


Human  Institutions 

elements  of  thoughts  and  give  each  one  the 
opportunity  to  recognise  them. 

The  controversies  regarding  the  Sabbath 
were  of  this  latter  kind.  The  point  at  issue 
involved  the  whole  system  of  external 
arrangements  by  which  religion  among  his 
fellow  countrymen  had  been  promoted  and 
expressed  for  generations  and  ages  past, — all 
the  institutions  of  Judaism,  as  they  were 
from  another  point  of  view  typified  in  the 
rite  of  circumcision.  Jesus'  treatment  of 
the  Sabbath  was  therefore  representative  of 
His  attitude  towards  all  institutions  and 
covered  their  function  in  human  life,  His 
relation  to  them  and  their  relation  to  human 
freedom. 

I.  Institutions  and  their  Function. 

Institutions  vindicate  their  right  to  be 
when  they  minister  to  and  promote  human 
welfare.  This  is  just  as  true  of  the  Sabbath 
as  of  any  other  institution.  Whether  dis- 
covered by  accident,  or  developed  as  a  result 
of  long  experience,  it  was  surely  not  a  purely 
human   invention.     It    is    not    necessary    to 

39 


The  Son  of  Man 

interpret  literally,  and  in  their  most  super- 
ficial sense  the  words  of  the  establishment  of 
the  Sabbath  in  the  Old  Testament  in  order 
to  believe  in  its  divine  origin  and  binding 
force.  Its  beneficent  operation  through 
human  history  abundantly  evidences  this. 

"  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man."  This 
is  so  obvious  a  proposition  that  one  wonders 
why  it  should  have  been  necessary  for  such 
a  teacher  as  Jesus  to  give  utterance  to  it. 
Yet  it  is  not  difficult  upon  a  moment's  re- 
flection to  see  that  the  Sabbath  was  not  being 
used  for  the  benefit  of  man.  In  order  to  be 
a  means  towards  advancing  the  higher  life 
through  it,  it  must  be  understood  and  ob- 
served in  harmony  with  its  purpose  and 
nature.  But  as  interpreted  and  applied  by 
the  men  of  Jesus'  time  it  had  failed  in  this. 
Instead  of  refreshing  and  restoring  the  souls 
of  men,  it  had  been  turned  into  a  means  of 
wearying  and  distressing  them.  And  when 
the  soul  is  wearied  and  annoyed,  even  the 
secondary  blessing  of  bodily  invigoration 
suffers  a  check,  and  fails  of  its  full  ejffect. 

One  of  the  first  experiences  recorded  of 

40 


Human  Institutions 

the  patriots  in  the  Maccabean  uprising  was 
that  in  their  zeal  to  conform  to  the  Law,  so 
violently  attacked  by  their  oppressors,  they 
observed  the  Sabbath  with  absolute  and  un- 
bending rigidity.  They  would  not  even 
fight  their  enemies  on  that  day.  They  con- 
sented to  be  slaughtered  without  defence 
rather  than  break  the  Fourth  Commandment. 
On  discovering  this,  their  Syrian  opponents 
timed  their  attacks  so  as  to  bring  them  on 
the  Sabbath  day.  Thus  the  Law  came  to  be 
a  hindrance  rather  than  a  means  towards 
the  preservation  and  promotion  of  life  and 
welfare.  Whereupon,  with  characteristic  sanity 
and  common  sense,  the  early  Maccabean 
leaders  relaxed  the  Law  sufficiently  to  permit 
them  to  defend  themselves.  But  the  spirit 
of  literalism  developed  so  early  continued 
and  even  grew  through  the  generations  inter- 
vening to  the  days  of  Jesus.  It  is  from  this 
blind  observance  of  prescriptions  without 
regard  to  their  object  and  purpose  that  Jesus 
recalled  His  generation  through  His  attitude 
towards  the  Sabbath. 

If  institutions    are   normally  mere  means 

4t 


The  Son  of  Man 

towards  ends,  then  the  moment  the  ends 
fail  to  be  attained  by  them  they  become 
useless.  There  are  some  things  in  nature 
which,  being  means  towards  ends,  are  always 
and  everywhere  effective,  hence  imperishable 
and  unalterable.  Their  connection  as  means 
towards  the  ends  attained  by  them  is  vital. 
Language  is  a  means  of  intercommunication 
of  thought,  and  always  will  be.  Cultivation 
of  the  soil  is  a  means  towards  larger  fertility, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  its  being 
dispensed  with.  Social  amenities  are  neces- 
sary in  order  to  co-operation  and  advancement. 
But  even  in  these,  though  the  instrumentality 
is  necessary,  the  special  form  of  it  may  vary. 
Vehicles  are  needed  for  transportation  ;  but 
their  exact  forms  may  change  and  the  power 
that  drives  them  may  be  superseded  by 
better.  This,  according  to  Jesus,  is  exactly 
the  case  with  all  institutions.  The  Sabbath 
is  a  necessary  means  for  the  promotion  of 
human  life  towards  its  ideal,  but  it  is  not  the 
same  form  and  kind  of  Sabbath  that  brings 
about  the  same  degree  of  spiritual  and  moral 
uplift  always   and    under   all  circumstances. 

42 


Human  Institutions 

It  may,  indeed,  occur  that  apparently  contrary 
paths  may  lead  to  the  same  goal.  If  the 
Sabbath  was  designed  to  develop  manhood 
in  its  entirety,  then  in  certain  circumstances 
the  only  way  to  observe  it  would  be  to  give 
the  whole  man,  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  as  nearly 
as  possible  to  absolute  quiet.  For  it  is  only 
with  this  complete  relaxation  of  attention 
and  energy,  this  perfect  abandonment  of  the 
whole  being  to  the  processes  of  unconscious 
physical  life,  that  manhood  will  regain  its 
elasticity  and  power  of  resistance. 

But  manifestly  this  is  not  a  typical,  or 
frequently  recurring,  situation.  Men  are 
not  often  so  completely  exhausted  that  the 
lapse  to  absolute  inactivity  is  the  best  form 
of  rest.  In  the  vast  majority  of  cases  perfect 
rest  is  best  secured  by  a  change  of  employ- 
ment. If  the  Sabbath  is  to  advance  manhood 
to  a  stage  further  in  its  growth,  it  must  in 
such  cases  include  acts  of  worship,  meditation 
and  prayer,  as  well  as  abstinence  from  the 
usual  thoughts  and  actions  of  daily  life. 

But  even  this  may  not  be  the  best  means 
of  securing  the  end  for  which  the  Sabbath 

43 


The  Son  of  Man 

was  instituted.  "Works  of  necessity  and 
of  mercy  '*  have  been  usually  construed  as 
exceptions  to  the  Sabbath  law  of  rest.  But 
there  is  a  point  of  view  from  which  they 
appear  not  exceptions  at  all,  but  instances  of 
perfect  obedience  to  it.  They  are  not  merely 
permitted  by  the  Law,  but  required  in  its 
very  operation.  The  man  who  went  to  the 
rescue  of  a  beast  fallen  into  a  pit  on  the 
Sabbath  day  was  not  doing  so  with  com- 
punction, as  if  he  must  resort  to  this  act  as 
a  last  step  in  a  desperate  situation  ;  he  was 
not  making  a  choice  between  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath  and  the  law  of  life.  He  was  rather 
obeying  the  spirit  of  the  law,  which  required 
of  him  to  build  himself  up  morally  and 
spiritually.  In  the  act  of  kindness,  the  deed 
of  mercy  to  man  or  beast,  he  who  remembered 
the  Sabbath  law  was  to  see  a  means  of  bring- 
ing into  exercise,  and  thus  of  strengthening, 
the  finer  spiritual  impulses,  the  godlike 
intuitions  of  his  nature. 

Thus  it  may  com^e  to  pass  that  the  same 
end  may  be  attained  by  exactly  opposite,  and 
apparently  contradictory,  means.      In  the  one 

44 


Human  Institutions 

case  the  inner  man  may  be  built  up  by 
conscientious  abstinence  from  all  active 
forthputting  of  energy,  even  of  the  subtlest 
spiritual  kind  ;  in  the  other  case  it  may  be 
uplifting  and  ennobling  to  engage  in  the 
hardest,  most  menial,  muscular,  sweat- 
producing  work.  The  result  in  both  cases 
will  be  the  self-realisation  and  spiritual 
growth  of  the  man.  And  again  in  both 
cases  this  will  take  place  because  of  obedience 
to  the  same  law.  "  The  Sabbath  was  made 
for  man." 

2.  The  Authority  of  Institutions. 

When  Jesus  said,  "The  Son  of  Man  is 
the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath,"  it  would  be  easy 
to  interpret  the  phrase  as  though  He  pre- 
sumed to  make  exceptions  to  the  Sabbath 
law  on  His  own  personal  responsibility,  either 
privately  or  officially  exercised.  What  it 
means,  however,  is  that  the  needs  of  human- 
ity determine  the  establishment,  the  modifi- 
cation, or  the  abolition  of  institutions.  What 
a  splendid  illustration  He  furnishes  of  this  in 
the  new  sacraments  which  He  substituted  for 

45 


The  Son  of  Man 

those  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  needs  of 
such  an  age  and  of  such  a  race  as  those  of 
the  Old  Testament  were  best  served  through 
the  Levitical  institutions  and  the  rite  of 
circumcision.  But,  when  a  new  type  of  life 
was  to  be  inaugurated,  designed  to  extend  to 
the  whole  human  race,  scattered  over  all  the 
earth,  living  under  all  kinds  of  climatic  con- 
ditions, through  centuries  and  millenniums 
to  come,  it  was  needful  that  its  sacramental 
symbolism  should  be  limited  to  simpler  and 
more  universally  adaptable  forms. 

The  Sabbath  and  all  other  institutions 
owe  their  power  to  compel  to  the  authority 
of  the  Son  of  Man.  It  is  because  humanity 
in  its  entirety  agrees,  and  thus  decrees,  that 
it  shall  use  an  institution  for  its  own 
advancement  that  the  institution  secures  its 
hold  on  men's  minds  and  hearts  and  be- 
comes a  power  to  reckon  with. 

The  force  of  this  principle  is  not  limited 
to  the  religious  sphere.  Such  a  great  and 
complex  institution  as  modern  jurisprudence 
is  clearly  under  its  sway.  The  Son  of  Man 
is  the  Lord  of  the  Civil  and  of  all  Law.     It 

46 


Human  Institutions 

is  because  humanity  has  needed  prescriptions 
to  move  it  towards  the  exercise  of  rights 
and  prerogatives,  and  safeguards  to  restrain 
it  from  the  abuse  of  that  exercise,  that  there 
has  emerged  a  vast  and  complex  system  of 
precedents  and  regulations,  of  statutes  and 
prohibitions,  recognized  as  of  real  authority 
by  the  private  citizen. 

Look  at  a  more  specific  instance,  that  of 
trial  by  jury.  The  beneficent  intention 
of  this  institution  and  in  general  its  success- 
ful operation  in  civilised  society  can  scarcely 
be  called  into  question.  But  how  did  trial 
by  jury  acquire  its  hold  and  place  in  modern 
social  organisations  ?  By  proving  itself  to 
be  a  satisfactory  means  of  avoiding  injustice, 
eliminating  prejudice  and  putting  passion 
into  the  background.  Its  authority  is  the 
authority  of  the  Son  of  Man  ;  and  so  long 
as  it  harmonises  with  the  will  of  the  Son  of 
Man  it  is  above  challenge. 

Yea,  as  long  as  institutions  express  and 
execute  the  authority  which  has  created 
them,  they  gain  in  strength.  They  become 
the  centres  around  which  associations  gather 

47 


The  Son  of  Man 

and  cluster ;  and  with  these  associations, 
institutions  come  to  win  more  and  more 
respect  and  recognition.  Their  power  to 
accomplish  the  good  for  which  they  have 
been  set  up  is  enhanced  and  multiplied. 
And  the  authority  upon  which  they  first 
secured  their  acceptance  is  more  clearly 
perceived  and  more  effectively  exercised. 

But  a  time  is  apt  to  come  in  the  life  of 
institutions  when  they  stand  no  longer  for 
the  good  desired  through  them,  but  for 
some  inscrutable  good  within  themselves. 
The  overgrowth  of  their  own  branches  and 
foliage,  as  it  were,  conceals  their  connection 
with  the  root  and  life  from  which  they 
sprang.  Like  parasitic  vegetation,  they  sap 
the  life  of  the  stock  on  which  they  had 
fastened.  They  threaten  to,  and  sometimes 
actually  do,  dominate  the  very  thing  which 
they  were  designed  to  serve.  The  authority 
on  which  they  were  based,  which,  indeed, 
made  them  possible,  is  superseded  by  a 
fictitious  authority  of  their  own.  The 
Sabbath  tends  to  become  the  lord  of  the 
Son  of  Man,  instead  of  recognising  the  Son 

48 


Human  Institutions 

of  Man  as  its  own  Lord.  When  this  point 
is  reached  the  time  has  clearly  arrived  for  a 
protest  and  a  revolution  in  the  name  of  the 
Son  of  Man. 

What  has  been  said  is  in  general  true  of 
all  institutions  ;  but  it  is  more  especially 
true  of  those  practices  and  forms  which 
are  associated  with  the  worship  of  God. 
Worship  is  good  in  any  form  and  obligatory 
in  some  form  ;  but  when  it  becomes  fixed 
and  rigid,  and  when  traditional  pressure 
gives  it  a  standing  apart  from  the  obligation 
carried  by  its  intrinsic  value  as  a  means  to 
an  end,  the  time  has  come  either  to  end  it 
or  to  mend  it. 

3.  Institutions  and  Human  Freedom. 

When  Jesus  said,  "The  Son  of  Man  is 
Lord  of  the  Sabbath/*  He  did  not  mean  that 
man  as  man,  or  any  man,  had  a  right  to 
abrogate  or  change  the  law  of  periodic  rest. 
None  but  He  who  instituted  the  law  had  a 
right  to  do  that.  But  He  did  mean  that 
when  a  man  learns  how  to  realise  the  true 
value    of    life,   and    of    the    things   which 

49 


The  Son  of  Man 

minister  to  its  abundance,  he  will  neither 
overestimate  the  external  and  prescriptive 
features  of  the  institution,  nor  minimise  its 
inner  power  and  usefulness.  He  will  use 
the  Sabbath  as  a  master  uses  a  servant, 
commanding  him  to  do  his  bidding.  He 
will  no  more  allow  the  Sabbath  law  to  work 
him  injury  in  body,  soul,  or  spirit  than  a 
master  permits  his  employees  to  wantonly 
damage  his  property  or  harm  his  person. 

In  the  end,  therefore,  Jesus  places  the 
Sabbath  law,  and  by  implication  all  other 
institutions,  under  the  free  interpretative 
power  of  those  for  whose  benefit  they  have 
been  erected,  provided  that  such  have  at- 
tained the  high  point  of  vantage  upon  which 
He,  the  Son  of  Man,  places  them. 

But,  is  it  not  putting  a  considerable  weight 
of  responsibility  on  the  shoulders  of  in- 
dividuals to  ask  them  to  interpret  for  them- 
selves as  to  when  and  how  they  shall  conform 
to  the  law  ?  And  is  it  not,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  law  itself,  taking  a  considerable 
risk  ?  Is  the  Sabbath  law  safe  when  left  to 
every  man  to  interpret  for  himself  .f*     May 

50 


Human  Institutions 

it  not  be  completely  interpreted  away  ? 
These  questions  will  trouble  only  him  who 
forgets  that  the  lordship  of  the  Sabbath  is 
not  vested  in  any  man,  but  in  the  man  who 
recognises  the  Son  of  Man  as  his  Lord. 

No  man  who  so  puts  himself  under  the 
dominion  of  the  Son  of  Man  will  allow 
himself  for  a  moment  to  use  the  Sabbath  for 
any  other  than  its  proper  and  ideal  purposes. 
He  would  be  denying  his  distinctive  nature 
were  he  to  act  otherwise.  He  who  for  the 
mere  sake  of  asserting  his  freedom,  or  serv- 
ing a  lower  end  than  the  ideal,  would  dis- 
regard the  Sabbath  is  like  a  man  who  would 
reject  the  advantages  of  friendship,  wealth, 
or  happiness  simply  to  demonstrate  or  pro- 
mote his  own  self-sufficiency. 

In  the  last  analysis  the  whole  problem 
resolves  itself  into  one  of  the  development 
of  the  highest  ideals.  Men  aim  to  produce 
and  maintain  human  welfare  through  legisla- 
tive enactments.  When  these  prove  insuf- 
ficient they  endeavour  to  amend  and  fortify 
them  by  other  enactments  more  minute 
and  comprehensive,  until  in  the  end  life  is 

51 


The  Son  of  Man 

enslaved,  "  cribbed,  cabined,  and  confined  " 
within  a  network  of  rigid  prescriptions. 
When  the  Son  of  Man  would  add  abundance 
to  life,  he  begins  by  implanting  his  own 
image  and  spirit  in  men.  Then  he  leaves 
them  to  use  the  external  expressions  and 
meanings  that  have  proved  most  helpful 
with  the  freedom  that  those  who  have  his 
image  and  spirit  within  them  ought  to  have. 
"  Against  such  there  is  no  law." 


52 


IV 


THE  SON  OF  MAN:  REDEMPTIVE 
MINISTRY 


IV 


THE  SON  OF  MAN  :  REDEMPTIVE 
MINISTRY 

Mark  x.  45  (Matt.  xx.  28). 

There  is  much  to  account  for  the  attitude 
of  the  two  disciples  who  sought  the  places 
of  honour  in  the  Messianic  kingdom.  It 
has  ever  been  the  practice  of  the  conquerors 
and  rulers  of  the  earth  to  reward  their 
faithful  adherents  and  helpers  with  posts  of 
responsibility  and  honour.  Alexander  the 
Great  raised  his  devoted  friends  to  positions 
of  command  in  his  army.  Napoleon  placed 
his  brothers  and  kindred  on  the  thrones  of 
the  kingdoms  he  had  conquered.  In  ancient 
times  especially  office  was  viewed  not  so 
much  in  the  light  of  a  trust  to  be  conscien- 
tiously administered  either  in  the  interests  of 
the  entrusting  sovereign  or  in  those  of  the 

55 


The  Son  of  Man 

people  over  whom  it  carried  authority,  as  in 
the  light  of  a  prize  to  be  coveted,  a  reward 
of  fidelity.  If,  therefore,  the  Messianic 
kingdom  was  to  have  a  hierarchy  of  officers, 
those  who  were  the  nearest  to  the  king 
himself  might  very  well  expect  headship  over 
others  when  the  kingdom  was  established. 

From  this  ideal  to  that  of  Jesus  it  was  a 
long  and  difficult  way  that  the  disciples  were 
called  to  travel.  We  wonder,  first  of  all,  that 
they  did  not  at  once  decline  to  go  further. 
We  do  not  wonder  that  they  found  it 
difficult  to  move  from  their  position  to  that 
of  Jesus.  "Ye  know  that  the  princes  of 
the  Gentiles  exercise  dominion  over  them, 
and  they  that  are  great  exercise  authority 
over  them.  But  it  shall  not  be  so  among 
you  :  but  whosoever  will  be  great  among 
you,  let  him  be  your  minister  ;  and  whoso- 
ever would  be  chief  among  you,  shall  be 
your  servant"  (Matt.  xx.  25-27,  A.V.). 
It  has  been,  and  is,  a  hard  lesson  to  learn 
for  the  disciples  of  Jesus.  All  through  the 
ages  those  who  have  sincerely  wished  to  live 
close  to  Jesus  have  acted  as  if  somehow  they 

56 


Redemptive  Ministry 

thought  that  Jesus  did  not  mean  what  He 
said.  For  have  they  not  assumed,  not  only 
the  titles  "  Lord  "  and  "  Master,"  "  Doctor  " 
and  "  prince,"  but  also  tried  to  exercise  the 
dominion  and  authority  carried  by  these 
names  and  titles  ?  There  are,  indeed,  times 
when  the  Master^s  living  illustration  of  it 
looms  with  irresistible  distinctness  before  the 
eyes  of  the  disciples,  and  humiliation  and 
heart-searchings  follow  ;  but  soon  again,  like 
men  who  wish  to  keep  awake  but  whom 
sleep  overcomes,  they  lapse  once  more  into 
the  same  jealous  watchfulness  of  each  other, 
anxious  lest  their  fellow-disciples  may  some- 
how gain  the  upper  hand. 

"It  shall  not  be  so  among  you"  (A.V.). 
The  way  in  which  Jesus  pressed  His  principle 
upon  His  disciples  was  not  by  adducing 
arguments,  but  by  holding  His  own  example 
plainly  before  them.  "  Ye  call  me  Teacher 
and  Lord  :  and  ye  say  well ;  for  so  I  am. 
If  I  then,  the  Lord  and  the  Teacher,  have 
washed  your  feet ;  ye  also  ought  to  wash  each 
other^s  feet  "  (John  xiii.  13).  If  the  king  of 
the  kingdom  was  not  to  lord  it  over  the  people, 

57 


The  Son  of  Man 

certainly  none  of  them  should  aim  to  lord 
it  over  the  others.  "  The  Son  of  Man  came 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister." 

I.  Exaltation  through  Abasement. 

He  who  would  be  first  must  become  such 
by  choosing  to  be  last.  He  who  would  seek 
the  position  of  servant  would  rise  to  greatness. 
Exaltation  through  abasement :  that  is  the 
paradox  of  Jesus.  The  explanation  of  the 
paradox  lies  in  the  fact  that  place  as  such  is  not 
a  proper  goal  of  ambition  according  to  Jesus. 
What  His  disciple  should  seek  is  not  place 
but  work.  And  the  reward  of  work  must 
needs  be  place.  In  seeking  work  one  abases 
himself.    In  receiving  the  reward  he  is  exalted. 

Exaltation  through  abasement.  Yes,  but 
not  abasement  in  order  to  exaltation.  There 
is  a  way  of  reading  the  principle  which 
nullifies  its  real  force.  When  one  deliber- 
ately chooses  a  low  place  with  the  intention 
of  thereby  securing  a  higher  one  in  the  end, 
not  only  does  he  misunderstand  the  meaning 
of  the  Master,  but  as  soon  as  his  motive 
betrays  itself,  as  it  is  bound  to  do,  he  must 

58 


Redemptive  Ministry 

needs  fail  to  attain  the  end.  Moreover, 
service  undertaken  for  the  sake  of  promotion 
to  rulership  soon  becomes  formal  and  per- 
functory, and  degenerates,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
mediaeval  rite  of  feetwashing,  into  an  empty 
caricature.  No  one  ever  commanded  more 
instant  respect  for  Himself  than  Jesus  did. 
Yet  no  one  laid  less  claim  to  it  for  its  own 
sake  than  He.  "  He  made  himself  of  no 
reputation,  and  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a 
servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness  of 
man"  (Phil.  ii.  7,  A.V.).  "Though  he  was 
rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  he  became  poor " 
(2  Cor.  viii.  9,  A.  V.).  Why  ?  Not  in  order 
to  be  made  richer,  or  to  be  raised  to  a  higher 
height,  but  simply  and  purely  in  order  to 
enrich  those  whom  He  had  loved.  Hence, 
"  God  hath  exalted  and  given  him  a  name 
which  is  above  every  name :  that  at  the 
name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of 
things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and 
things  under  the  earth'*  (Phil.  ii.  9,  10). 
His  abasement  was  unreserved,  and  its  object 
was  the  lifting  up  of  those  who  were  sunken 
into  a  helpless  dejection. 

59 


The  Son  of  Man 

There  is  a  generosity  that  aims  to  get 
more  than  it  gives  :  it  is  the  generosity  of 
the  investor.  The  owner  of  lands  grants  to 
the  community  a  liberal  tract  for  the  erection 
of  a  church  or  a  school  in  a  growing  territory. 
Apparently  he  impoverishes  himself  in  order 
to  enrich  the  public.  In  reality  he  enriches 
himself.  The  value  of  what  he  has  given 
comes  back  to  him,  perhaps  manifold,  in  the 
enhancement  of  the  value  of  the  lands 
remaining  in  his  possession.  To  this  kind 
of  giver  one  may  almost  hear  Jesus  saying, 
"  What  reward  have  ye  ?  Do  not  even  the 
publicans  the  same  ?  What  do  ye  more  than 
others  ?  "  What  reward  does  the  ostensibly 
humble  man  deserve  who  depreciates  himself 
in  order  to  hear  others  sing  his  praises? 
What  more  than  others  does  the  apparently 
self-denying  man  who  practises  his  self- 
renunciation  for  a  time  in  order  later  to  yield 
himself  to  a  more  unrestrained  indulgence  ? 

The  self-abasement  which  leads  to  exalta- 
tion is  a  self-forgetful  abasement.  So  long 
as  its  spell  holds  one  he  knows  of  nothing 
ulterior.      How   often    a    public    man    has 

60 


Redemptive  Ministry 

thrown  himself  Into  some  form  of  service, 
taking  a  lowly  place  in  the  ranks,  thoughtful 
of  nothing  but  the  immediate  good  end  to 
be  accomplished,  and  has  found  himself  to 
his  great  surprise  the  subject  of  applause  and 
appreciation.  And  what  in  all  such  cases  Is 
of  more  consequence  to  the  faithful  worker, 
he  has  also  earned  promotion  to  higher  forms 
of  service.  The  last  are  constantly  being 
forced  to  the  first  places,  and  the  first  to  the 
last,  not  by  the  hand  of  a  mocking  Nemesis, 
but  in  accordance  with  a  universal  law.  The 
seed  that  falls  Into  the  soil  from  the  plant 
seems  lost,  but  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  plant  it  Is  the  only  seed  that  Is  not  lost. 
Self-forgetful  effort  in  behalf  of  others 
always  brings  forth  fruit  in  perpetuating  the 
good  done  ;  and  self-seeking,  self-advertising 
activity  brings  its  own  reward,  which  may 
be,  indeed,  conspicuity  for  a  season,  but  it  is 
consplcuity  with  scorn. 

2.  Leadership  through  Service. 

But  exaltation  and  abasement  alike  are  but 
means  toward  ends.      Even   self-abasement, 

6i 


The  Son  of  Man 

unreserved  and  self-forgetful,  may  not  be  in 
itself  what  Jesus  meant  to  make  the  law  of 
His  kingdom.  "The  Son  of  Man  came  not 
to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister." 
More  important  than  exaltation  through  self- 
abasement  is  the  lesson  of  leadership  through 
service. 

Among  the  nations  the  goal  of  ambition 
is  that  one  should  be  offered  and  accept 
graciously  the  service  of  his  inferiors.  The 
badge  of  royalty  is  to  be  obeyed.  "  I  also 
am  a  man  set  under  authority,"  said  the 
centurion  with  natural  pride,  "and  I  say  to 
this  one.  Go,  and  he  goeth  ;  and  to  another, 
Come,  and  he  cometh  *'  (Luke  vii.  8).  To 
have  large  numbers  of  loyal  subordinates  to 
whom  one  may  issue  orders  and  know  that 
he  will  be  implicitly  respected  and  served, 
to  have  others  work  for  one  and  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  their  labours,  this  is  what  made 
positions  of  command  so  desirable. 

There  were,  indeed,  faint  glimmerings  of 
a  different  ideal  of  regal  dignity  and  preroga- 
tive even  in  ancient  times.  The  advisers  of 
Rehoboam   were    divided    into    two  groups, 

62 


Redemptive  Ministry 

The  younger  said  to  him,  in  effect,  that  the 
demands  of  the  tribes  were  simply  the  omens 
of  a  rebellious  disposition,  the  beginnings  of 
anarchy,  the  mutterings  of  an  impending 
outbreak  against  discipline.  They  must  be 
summarily  dealt  with,  and  that  with  a  strong 
hand.  The  only  way  to  maintain  order  in 
such  circumstances  was  to  double  the  riorour 

o 

of  existing  disciplinary  measures.  The  older 
and  more  experienced  men  held  up  another 
ideal.  "If  thou  wilt  serve  this  people,"  they 
said,  "  they  will  obey  thee."  Events  proved 
that  whatever  the  value  and  wisdom  of  the 
older  men  may  have  been,  that  of  the  younger 
was  suicidal. 

Other  kings  in  Israel,  because  they  realised 
the  ideal  of  the  older  advisers  of  Rehoboam, 
were  more  successful.  They  demonstrated 
the  proposition  that  the  perpetuity  of  the 
ruler's  hold  on  the  ruled  depends  on  his 
unswerving  purpose  to  administer  the  govern- 
ment altogether  in  the  interests  of  the  whole 
people  ruled.  This  was  what  the  prophets 
meant  by  righteousness  as  they  held  up  the 
principle  to  the  leaders  of  Israel.    "  Ich  Dien  " 

63 


The  Son  of  Man 

should  be  not  only  the  motto,  but  the  working 
philosophy  of  the  monarchy  that  would 
expect  loyal  subjects. 

But  these  were  only  the  foreshadowings, 
the  dim  anticipations  of  the  full  divine  ideal 
of  royalty.  They  were  to  become  clearer 
when  the  grand  figure  of  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah  was  thrown  on  the  canvas.  They 
were  to  be  perfected,  and  perfectly  revealed, 
in  the  person  and  mission  of  Jesus.  In  Him 
leadership  through  helpful  service  was  shown 
forth  in  its  full  beauty,  and  the  evolution  of 
true  princely  character  was  completed. 
Noblesse  oblige  may  now  well  sum  up  the 
distinctive  quality  of  true  aristocracy. 

Monarchy  is  passing  away.  Democratic 
political  institutions  are  prevailing  all  over 
the  globe.  But  the  spirit  of  self-promotion 
is  not  limited  to  monarchical  forms  of  State 
organisation.  The  instinct  for  dominion 
over  others,  which  is  a  form  of  the  more 
primal  instinct  of  self-preservation,  continues 
to  work.  It  is  necessary  to  set  over-against 
it  what  Drummond  has  taught  us  to  call  the 
**  struggle    for    the    other."       Men    under 

64 


Redemptive  Ministry 

democratic  forms  of  government  and  under 
social  conditions  which  exclude  aristocratic 
distinctions  cling  to  the  desire  to  be  served. 
They  have  not  ceased  aiming  to  raise  them- 
selves upon  pedestals  from  whence  they  may 
exercise  authority.  They  may  not  demand 
the  places  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the 
left  hand  of  power  as  a  matter  of  privilege 
because  of  intimacy  with  the  absolute  king  ; 
they  may  not  ask  for  them  on  the  ground  of 
inherited  rights  ;  they  may  only  plead  the 
possession  of  hard  won  wealth,  or  of  influence 
secured  through  years  of  work  ;  but  whether 
on  the  ground  of  wealth  or  achievement  of  any 
kind,  the  moment  any  one  sets  forth  a  claim 
to  be  ministered  unto,  he  is  placing  himself 
in  a  different  class  from  the  Son  of  Man. 

"  Ye  know  not  what  ye  ask,*'  may  be  said 
to  him  as  it  was  to  the  sons  of  Zebedee. 
"  Are  ye  able  to  drink  the  cup  that  I  shall 
drink  of,  and  to  be  baptized  with  the  baptism 
that  I  am  baptized  with  ? "  How  eagerly 
these  young  men  accepted  the  challenge  !  A 
young  prince  ambitious  to  enjoy  the  glamour 
and  glory  of  the  throne  says,  "  I  am  able," 

65 


The  Son  of  Man 

to  do  the  work  of  the  kinor.  But  he  soon 
discovers  that  the  cup  which  accompanies 
the  throne  has  for  dregs,  anxieties  and  fears, 
apprehensions  of  revolution,  terrors  of  the 
assassin*s  dagger,  or  the  anarchist's  bomb, 
forebodinos  of  humiliation  and  distress  for 
the  loved  ones.  These  are  not  necessarily 
limited  to  the  lot  of  the  weak  and  unworthy 
ruler  ;  they  may  be  inevitable  as  ingredients 
of  royalty  under  all  conditions  ;  but  how 
different  their  aspect  to  the  monarch  who 
aims  at  royalty  for  the  honour  and  the  power 
it  brings,  from  what  it  is  to  the  one  who 
takes  royalty  as  a  God-given  trust  and  task 
to  be  performed  in  the  spirit  of  loving 
ministry  to  his  people.  To  the  one  they 
are  the  unexpected,  mysterious  and  unde- 
served misfortunes  that  fickle  Fortune  has 
placed  in  his  lot  ;  to  the  other  they  are  the 
cross  which  all  faithful  ministry  must  vicari- 
ously carry.  Herod  died  haunted  by  fears 
and  exhausted  by  diseases,  not  knowing  why 
his  lot  should  have  been  beset  by  so  many 
and  so  sore  trials.  William  of  Orange  died 
by  the  hand  of  the  assassin,  realising  that  he 

66 


Redemptive  Ministry 

had  done  the  will  of  God,  and  full  of  peace 
because  his  efforts  had  resulted  in  measurably 
advancing  the  interests  of  his  beloved  people. 
Again,  the  man  who  is  emulating  the  place 
of  leadership  in  the  modern  church  or  society 
— who  is  seeking  to  become  pope,  cardinal, 
bishop,  president,  overseer,  moderator, 
answers  the  question,  "  Are  ye  able  ?  '*  with 
a  half  thought  out,  "  I  am  able  '* ;  and  he 
discovers,  alas  !  too  late,  that  the  coveted  prize 
had  attached  to  it  a  cup  full  of  bitter  dregs. 
There  was  the  criticism  of  his  brethren,  the 
jealousy  of  his  rivals,  the  misunderstanding 
of  his  motives  and  aims,  the  defection  of  his 
associates  and  helpers,  the  challenging  of 
his  wisdom,  the  thousand  other  petty  trials 
and  annoyances.  How  will  he  take  these  ? 
What  will  they  mean  to  him  ?  When  the 
cry  is  raised  that  his  leadership  is  resulting 
in  the  muddling  of  affairs,  that  he  has  bungled 
and  missed  the  course,  that  he  is  driving  the 
ship  to  its  ruin  upon  the  rocks,  what  will  he 
think  of  it  ?  Will  he  say.  It  is  a  blind  and 
cruel  fate  that  has  thrown  him  into  the  hands 
of  merciless  adversaries,  or  will  he  look  only 

67 


The  Son  of  Man 

to  Him  that  judgeth  aright  for  His  judgment, 
and  to  the  advancement  of  the  cause  com- 
mitted to  his  hands  as  his  joy  ?  It  will 
depend  on  whether  he  was  led  to  the  place 
of  leadership  without  seeking  it  for  himself, 
and  accepted  it  as  an  opportunity  for  helpful 
service  ;  or  sought  the  position  for  the  honour, 
the  power,  and  the  emoluments  it  would 
bring  him. 

To  put  the  question  from  a  slightly 
different  point  of  view,  Would  the  leader 
accept  the  sleepless  nights,  the  carking  cares, 
the  broken  health,  the  unkindness  of  critics, 
and  the  apparent  waste  of  time  and  labour, 
if  he  knew  these  were  necessary  in  the  per- 
formance of  the  task  ?  It  depends  on 
whether  he  views  the  task  as  a  means  of 
being  ministered  unto  or  of  ministering. 

3.  Redemption  through  Suffering. 

The  test,  then,  of  the  service  which  leads 
to  leadership  is  not  its  pure  disinterestedness, 
but  its  absorbing  and  intense  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  one's  human  brethren.  And  as 
the  supreme   region  where  welfare   may  be 

68 


Redemptive  Ministry- 
wrought  out  is  the  spiritual,  and  the  supreme 
need  in  the  spiritual  sphere  is  the  blotting 
out  of  sin,  it  was  meet  that  the  supreme 
instance  of  service  should  issue  in  redemp- 
tion through  suffering.  He  "came  not  to 
be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  ^nd  give 
his  life  a  ransom  for  manyT  But  though  re- 
demption through  suffering  is  peculiarly  the 
characteristic  of  the  work  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
in  a  secondary  and  subordinate  way  it  may 
be  held  as  the  goal  of  all  service. 

The  world  has  in  these  latter  days  de- 
veloped a  broad  idea  of  service.  All  kinds 
of  good  work  are  included  under  the  enticing 
name.  It  is  service  to  give  of  one's  substance 
for  the  relief  of  suffering.  We  call  it  service 
to  educate  the  mind  of  the  ignorant  and  put 
them  in  a  position  where  they  can  help 
themselves.  We  call  it  service  to  labour  for 
the  righting  of  wrongs  and  injustices  caused 
by  an  abnormal  industrial  development,  or 
incident  to  a  too  rapid  growth  in  the  scientific 
control  of  the  resources  of  the  earth.  We 
call  it  service  to  live  in  a  social  settlement 
in  the  midst  of  the  slums  with  the  design  of 

69 


The  Son  of  Man 

merely  showing  those  who  have  no  oppor- 
tunity of  learning  otherwise  how  a  pure, 
clean,  and  noble  life  may  be  lived.  This  is 
all  very  good.  It  is  quite  possible,  however, 
that  some  one  or  all  of  these  forms  of  service 
may  be  looked  at  as  in  itself  and  for  its  sake 
the  ultimate  goal  and  aim  of  effort  :  and 
when  this  is  done  merely  ameliorative  effort 
usurps  the  place  of  redemptive  service. 

The  Son  of  Man  entered  upon  a  manifold 
ministry.  He  healed  the  sick,  he  cheered 
the  discouraged,  he  comforted  the  sorrowing, 
he  raised  the  downfallen,  he  taught  the 
ignorant  ;  and  all  ministries  along  these 
lines  in  His  name  must  undoubtedly  be 
reckoned  as  affiliated  with  His  work,  as 
having  the  sanction  of  His  example  and  the 
promise  of  His  approval.  Nevertheless  it 
must  never  be  forgotten  that  the  primary 
object  of  Jesus  in  ministering  was  the 
salvation  of  souls  from  the  thraldom  of  sin. 
"  The  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to 
save  that  which  was  lost."  Had  the  ills  of 
humanity  been  merely  those  of  ignorance  or 
poverty,  of  bodily  weakness    or  inadequate 

70 


Redemptive  Ministry 

legislation,  the  Son  of  Man  might  have  left 
the  natural  provisions  of  the  universe  to 
work  out  the  problem  of  the  elimination  of 
these  evils  as  they  have  had  a  tendency  to 
do  in  all  ages.  But  the  truth  is  that  behind 
and  beneath  all  these  subordinate  evils  there 
is  one  common  root  and  principle  of  life  : 
and  that,  experience  has  demonstrated  no 
processes  of  evolution  have  a  tendency  to 
eliminate,  and  no  growth  of  civilisation  has 
a  tendency  to  diminish.  It  was  this  that 
was  causing  the  "  loss  "  of  men  and  women  ; 
and  therefore  it  was  this  that  the  Son  of 
Man  was  concerned  to  attack,  and  from 
the  power  of  this  it  was  His  purpose  and 
endeavour  to  rescue  the  children  of  God. 

The  Pharisees  of  old  called  it  "  Tetser- 
ha-ra  '*  (the  principle  of  evil),  theologians 
have  named  it  "  Original  Sin  "  and  "  Total 
Depravity."  And  these  terms  have  in  the 
course  of  their  use  acquired  connotations 
of  an  objectionable  character.  We  may 
easily  dispense  with  their  use  since  Jesus 
Himself  did  not  resort  to  them  to  express 
His  meaning.     But  there  can  be  no  question 

71 


The  Son  of  Man 

whatever  that  the  thing  they  aim  to  express 
is  a  fact  of  experience  and  an  assumption  of 
Jesus  in  His  whole  attitude  and  teaching. 
Redemptive  ministry  meant  to  Him  giving 
"his  life  a  ransom  for  many."  And  all 
ministry  was  summed  up  and  capitalised 
in  His  suffering  for  the  redemption  of  His 
lost  sheep.  Nor  could  redemption  be  ac- 
complished except  by  the  way  of  His  giving 
His  life  a  ransom.  There  are  axiomatic 
truths  in  the  physical  sphere,  as  that  the 
whole  is  more  than  any  of  its  parts,  or  that 
two  bodies  cannot  occupy  the  same  space 
at  the  same  time.  There  seems  to  be  a 
necessary  and  even  axiomatic  truth  in  the 
realm  of  spiritual  reality,  less  obvious, 
perhaps,  because  truth  in  the  higher  sphere 
is  always  less  easy  to  discern,  that  re- 
demption cannot  be  accomplished  except 
through  vicarious  suffering. 

Finally,  such  redemptive  service  can  only 
be  rendered  by  one  who  is  himself  in  no 
need  of  redemption,  hence  for  human  beings 
by  those  who  have  been  redeemed.  Only  as 
the  soul  has  realised   the  double  truth  that 

72 


Redemptive  Ministry 

once  redeemed  there  can  be  no  more  anxiety 
for  its  own  blessedness,  and  that  the  blessing 
of  redemption  in  contrast  to  the  distress  and 
danger  of  sin  is  of  infinite  value,  can  it  with 
adequate  and  carrying  motive  power  take  up 
the  work  of  ministering  to  others  and  giving 
its  own  life  a  ransom  for  many. 


73 


THE  SON  OF  MAN  A  VICTIM 


THE   SON   OF    MAN   A   VICTIM 

Mark  ix.  31,  x.  33,  xiv.  21,  41  (Matt.  xvii.  22, 
xxvi.  2,  24,  45  ;  Luke  ix.  44,  xxii.  28  ;  Mark 
viii.  31  ;  Matt.  xvii.  12  ;   Luke  ix.  22). 

It  was  not  necessary  that  an  angel  from 
heaven  should  have  taught  men  that  a 
Sinless  man,  if  he  should  appear  in  an 
unideally  conditioned  world,  must  necessarily 
suffer.  Plato  in  a  very  familiar  passage  says, 
"The  righteous  man,  being  thought  un- 
righteous, will  be  scourged,  racked,  bound  ; 
will  have  his  eyes  put  out ;  and  finally, 
having  endured  all  sorts  of  evil,  will  be 
impaled  "  {Rep.  ii.  361).  It  was  inevitable 
that  where  moral  standards  have  been  per- 
verted, the  good  should  be  thought  evil  and 
the  evil  good.  The  good  man,  according  to 
Plato,  suffers  not  because  he  was  known  to 

77 


The  Son  of  Man 

be  good,  but  because  he  was  thought  to  be 
bad.  The  perfect  man  measured  by  per- 
verted standards  must  needs  appear  wicked 
and  be  awarded  the  judgment  of  the  wicked. 
//  When  William  Carey  awoke  to  the  real 
nature  and  genius  of  the  gospel  as  a  message 
of  world-wide  power  and  application,  and 
proposed  missionary  enterprise  among  the 
heathen  at  the  Northamptonshire  Association, 
Mr.  John  Ryland  vehemently  called  him  "a 
most  miserable  enthusiast."  Probably  the 
great  body  of  the  membership  of  the 
Association  concurred  in  this  judgment. 
When  John  Wesley  and  George  Whitefield 
began  their  fervid  evangelistic  work,  pleading 
with  their  audiences  for  immediate  decision 
for  Christ,  the  representatives  of  an  easy- 
going ecclesiasticism,  moving  in  traditional 
grooves,  denounced  them  in  all  manner  of 
severe  and  derogatory  terms.  No  thought- 
ful or  observant  reformer  with  ideals  above 
those  of  his  generation  will  expect  a  cordial 
welcome  and  an  earnest  co-operation  from 
the  corrupt  age  he  is  aiming  to  bring  to  a 
sense  of  better  things,  j  The  face  of  a  sinless 

7^ 


The  Son  of  Man  a  Victim 

man  in  a  sinful  community  is  a  challenge  to 
the  forces  of  evil  which  they  will  not  be 
slow  to  take  up.  By  His  very  coming  into 
the  world  the  Son  of  Man  places  Himself 
across  the  path  of  sin.  Will  sin  fail  to  fight 
for  its  life  ?  Does  the  wild  beast  at  bay 
give  up  meekly  to  the  hunter  who  is  seek- 
ing its  life  ?  Does  the  stream  across  whose 
path  the  dam  has  been  built  fail  to  rise  in 
its  accumulated  volume  and  weight  in  a 
determined  struggle  to  sweep  the  barrier  or 
overleap  it  .in  its  irresistible  march  towards 
the  ocean  ?  "  The  Son  of  Man  must  suffer 
at  the  hands  of  sinful  men."  The  sin  that 
is  in  them  must  needs  arise  to  sting  and 
wound  and  "bruise  his  heel." 

But  the  suffering  of  the  Son  of  Man  took 
certain  forms,  which,  characteristic  as  they 
may  be,  are  not  at  first  sight  congruous  with 
His  mission. 

I.  Betrayal. 

First  of  all,  He  was  "betrayed."  It  is 
interesting  to  note  how  much  is  said  of  the 
betrayal   of  Jesus.     The   expectation   of  it 

79 


The  Son  of  Man 

weighed  heavily  upon  His  mind,  so  that  He 
foreshadowed  it  to  His  followers.  Judas, 
who  perpetrated  the  act,  was  indelibly  marked 
with  the  stamp  of  its  dark  shame.  His 
former  companions  could  not,  after  the  act, 
think  of  him  apart  from  the  blot  on  his 
record,  nor  speak  of  him  without  adding  the 
descriptive  "which  was  to  betray  him.'* 
Even  in  the  preliminary  enumeration  of  the 
disciples  his  last  infamous  deed  must  be 
linked  with  his  name  — "  Judas,  who  also 
betrayed  him."  When  in  the  course  of  the 
narrative  of  the  last  days  the  arrest  is  reached, 
it  is  with  special  circumstantiality  that  the 
betrayal  is  placed  before  the  eye  of  the 
reader.  The  scene  in  the  garden,  the 
approach  of  the  officers  with  the  mob  armed 
with  sticks  and  staves  under  the  leadership 
of  Judas,  the  sign  of  the  kiss — all  these 
details  are  given  with  more  than  ordinary 
care  and  fullness. 

Why  this  special  emphasis  on  the  darkest 
hour  of  Jesus'  life  ?  Evidently  because  it 
had  impressed  all  observers  with  the  enormity 
of  its  offence.     A  betrayal  is  in  the  nature 

80 


The  Son  of  Man  a  Victim 

of  the  case  an  especially  grave  wrong.  It  Is 
falsehood  to  a  trust.  An  enemy  may  oppose 
and  fight  ;  and  he  may  do  so  in  an  open  and 
honourable  way.  A  friend  must  first  betray 
before  he  can  fight.  He  cannot  fight  honour- 
ably until  he  has  openly  ceased  to  be  a 
friend.  But  the  traitor  persists  in  appearing 
a  friend  when  at  heart  he  has  become  an 
enemy.  Betrayal  can  only  take  place  under 
the  cover  of  friendship  ;  therefore  its  best 
emblem  is  the  wolf  clothed  in  the  skin  of 
the  lamb,  whose  object  is  to  devour  and 
destroy  what  it  appears  to  befriend.  Its 
perpetrator  uses  the  most  sacred  of  relation- 
ships as  ground  of  the  vilest  and  most 
hateful  of  offences. 

Shakespeare's  Julius  Csesar  was  not 
surprised  to  see  among  his  assassins  the 
dark  eyes  of  the  "lean  Casslus,"  or  of  the 
"  envious  Casca "  ;  but  when  he  perceived 
the  genial  face  of  his  noble  friend  Brutus  in 
the  group,  he  quite  gave  way  ;  "  Ingratitude, 
more  strong  than  traitors'  arms,  quite  van- 
quished him."  Thus  it  has  come  to  pass 
that  Judas  has  borne  the  stigma  of  dishonour, 

8i 


The  Son  of  Man 

the  mark  of  Cain,  on  his  name  and  reputa- 
tion through  the  Christian  centuries. 

Men  will  almost  forgive  the  foul  immor- 
alities and  brutal  cruelties  of  a  Herod,  of  a 
Nero,  a  Caligula,  or  an  Alexander  Borgia  ; 
but  they  will  not  condone  the  treachery  of 
a  Benedict  Arnold  or  a  Judas  Iscariot. 
Nothing  in  the  whole  range  of  human 
passions  serves  as  a  better  means  of  stirring 
indignation  and  calling  upon  itself  the  exe- 
cration of  the  healthy  man  than  the  sin  of 
treason.  Therefore  in  literature  nothing  is 
more  apt  to  arouse  profounder  hatred  than 
this  sin  ;  and  in  the  criminal  code  nothing 
is  placed  above  it  as  a  crime,  and  punished 
with  a  severer  penalty  than  "  high  treason." 
In  the  tragedy  of  Macbeth  it  was  not  so 
much  the  heartlessness  of  the  cold-blooded 
murder  that  pierced  the  conscience-stricken 
king  and  broke  him  down,  as  that  the  crime 
was  committed  under  the  cover  of  friendly 
hospitality.  In  an  open  war  much  severer 
cruelty  might  have  been  displayed  ;  but  the 
betrayal  of  the  holiest  of  trusts,  of  friendship, 
led  to  the  incurable,  uncleansable  stain.     All 

82 


The  Son  of  Man  a  Victim 

of  great  Neptune's   ocean   could    not  wash 
away  the  blot. 

The  Son  of  Man  was  made  the  victim  of 
this  the  blackest  form  of  human  depravity. 
Is  there  any  significance  in  the  fact  ?  Was 
it  a  mere  accident  ?  or  was  it  an  incident 
growing  out  of  the  very  nature  of  the 
relation  He  sustained  to  the  moral  order  of 
the  universe  ?  An  incident,  but  inevitable  in 
the  circumstances.  Its  significance  must  be 
found  in  the  uncompromising  character  of 
the  conflict  with  sin.  It  was  no  mere  super- 
ficial, formal  engagement  to  satisfy  an  empty 
code  of  honour,  after  the  manner  of  a  modern 
duel.  It  was  a  deadly  combat  in  which  He 
grappled  with  the  invisible  powers  and  was 
assailed  by  them  as  a  mortal  foe.  The  Son 
of  Man  must,  indeed,  be  betrayed  into  the 
hands  of  men.  Thus  only  could  He  drain 
the  bitterness  of  the  cup  to  the  uttermost. 

2.  Suffering. 

"The  Son  of  Man  must  suffer  many 
things,  and  be  rejected  by  the  elders,  and  by 
the  chief  priests,  and  scribes.*'    "  The  elders," 

83 


The  Son  of  Man 

"  the  chief  priests,"  "  the  scribes  " — these 
are  the  potent  influences  in  social  life  which 
always  tend  to  become  more  and  more 
completely  organized,  and  to  assume  greater 
and  greater  authority.  "  The  elders,"  i,e.y 
those  who  were  appointed  to  rule,  the  govern- 
ing body  ;  "  the  chief  priests,"  i.e.y  the  officers 
of  the  churches,  the  ministers  of  religion, 
those  who  by  reason  of  their  ministering 
in  the  religious  services  had  come  to  be 
regarded  as  the  specially  accredited  executors 
of  the  divine  will  ;  and  the  "  scribes,"  /.<?., 
the  representatives  of  learning,  the  teachers 
of  the  people,  the  literary  class,  who  were 
therefore  the  guardians  of  the  intellectual 
interests  of  the  people.  The  enumeration 
is  exhaustive.  All  classes  of  leaders  and  all 
types  of  leadership  in  the  community  were 
concerned  with  the  appearance  of  the  Son  of 
Man.  For  He  presents  Himself  as  the  typical 
and  comprehensive  leader  ;  and  to  each  type 
as  well  as  to  each  individual  He  has  an  ideal 
to  hold  up.  But  by  each  class  He  is  rejected. 
Being  rejected  by  the  leaders.  He  was 
rejected  by  the  community.     It  is  true  that 


The  Son  of  Man  a  Victim 

some  individuals,  such  as  Nicodemus  and 
Joseph  of  Arimathea,  would  not  concur  in 
His  rejection  ;  and  that  others  went  even 
further  towards  Him,  and  were  destined  in 
later  days  to  be  His  active  followers  and 
disciples  ;  but  for  the  moment  His  rejection 
was  complete,  and  it  expressed  the  feeling 
and  attitude  of  the  whole  community  towards 
Him.  Rightly  and  wrongly  the  leaders  have 
borne  the  brunt  of  the  responsibility  of  His 
rejection.  Rightly,  because  it  belonged  to 
them  to  guide  the  people  to  the  best  action, 
and  they  failed  to  do  this.  Rightly,  also, 
because  no  matter  how  impotent  the  leader 
may  be  at  times  when  the  tide  of  popular 
feeling  has  risen  high  and  passed  beyond  his 
control,  in  the  end  he  is  one  of  the  makers 
of  the  feeling :  and  without  his  active 
co-operation  it  could  not  have  risen  so  high. 
The  leader's  responsibility  is  always  greater 
than  that  of  the  mere  unit  in  the  crowd. 
But  these  leaders  have  been  also  in  a 
measure  wrongly  held  accountable  for  the 
suffering  of  Jesus  because  the  people  who 
followed  were  equally  guilty.     The  ancient 

85 


The  Son  of  Man 

prophet's  "Like  people  like  priests*'  was 
ever  a  true  maxim.  No  people  at  any  time 
can  place  the  whole  burden  of  its  wrong- 
doing with  the  consequent  misfortune  on  the 
shoulders  of  its  leaders.  But  whether  people 
or  followers  were  more  to  blame,  the 
rejection  so  far  as  the  Son  of  Man  was 
concerned  was  complete. 

Nor  was  it  a  passive  or  negative  one.  It 
was  no  mere  silent  disregard,  a  contemptuous 
dismissal  of  His  claims,  a  supercilious  scorn 
that  will  not  condescend  to  so  unworthy  an 
adversary.  When  a  crisis  arises  it  may  be 
met  as  a  great  opportunity,  a  tide  with  which 
one  may  move  and  advance  the  world's  pro- 
gress ;  or  it  may  be  met  as  a  call  to  warfare, 
a  stream  that  must  be  stemmed  and  reversed; 
and  again  it  may  be  met  as  a  matter  of  no 
immediate  concern,  since  the  forces  that  are 
to  settle  the  issue  raised  are  adequately  at 
work  within  the  crisis  itself.  In  the  last 
case  the  statesman  adopts  a  policy  of 
masterly  inaction.  This  was  not  the  way 
the  leaders  looked  upon  the  crisis  raised  by 
the   appearance    of    Jesus.      No   policy   of 

86 


The  Son  of  Man  a  Victim 

silence  could  satisfy  the  conditions.  They 
must  take  note  of  Him,  they  must  gird 
themselves  to  the  conflict  with  Him.  He 
was  too  great  to  be  passed  by  ;  too  con- 
spicuous to  be  ignored. 

There  is  that  in  Jesus  which  commands 
men  to  some  kind  of  attitude  towards  Him. 
The  instant  His  true  nature  and  claims  are 
apprehended,  it  is  necessary  to  reckon  with 
Him.  If  not  accepted  He  must  be  rejected. 
He  always  divides  the  world  into  opposing 
camps.  He  that  is  not  for  Him  must  be 
against  Him.  "  He  came  unto  his  own, 
and  his  own  received  him  not."  But  this 
was  not  the  end.  "But  as  many  as  received 
him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to  become  sons 
of  God.'*  "  For  judgment  I  am  come  into 
the  world,  that  they  which  see  not  might  see, 
and  that  they  which  see  might  be  made 
blind."  Has  there  ever  arisen  among  the 
sons  of  men  one  who,  like  this  Son  of  Man, 
has  drawn  from  the  lips  of  His  brethren  so 
much  animated  expression  or  such  vehement 
rejection  ? 

"He    must    suffer    many    things,"    not 

87 


The  Son  of  Man 

necessarily  bodily  maltreatment.  This  was 
severe  enough  in  His  case.  The  scourgings 
and  buffetings,  the  nails  piercing  His  hands 
and  feet,  the  carrying  of  Him  bodily  to  and 
fro  :  these  are  incidents  in  the  suffering  of 
the  Son  of  Man,  and  serious,  no  doubt ;  but 
more  serious  than  these  were  the  pangs  that 
entered  His  soul,  the  hatred  and  malice,  the 
misunderstanding  and  misrepresentation,  the 
bitterness  of  spirit  and  the  hopeless  and 
cheerless  ill-will  that  lay  behind  these  out- 
ward acts  of  His  persecutors. 

The  bodily  pain  inflicted  on  Jesus  in  the 
days  of  His  flesh  was  but  a  circumstance, 
and  an  inevitable  one,  in  the  whole  complex 
of  outward  aspects  of  the  life  of  His  age. 
Offenders  must  needs  be  dealt  with  in  that 
way.  The  times  have  changed.  That 
method  of  treating  criminals,  either  alleged 
or  real,  has  passed  away.  Men  no  longer 
scourge,  buffet,  or  publicly  crucify  offenders 
against  the  law  of  the  State  or  the  Church. 
But  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  Jesus  was 
not  much  pained  by  these  outward  blows. 
Those  that  raised  His  body  on  the  Cross  and 

88 


The  Son  of  Man  a  Victim 

otherwise  treated  it  as  that  of  a  criminal, 
elicited  from  His  lips  the  alleviative  :  "They 
know  not  what  they  do."  But  the  pain  of 
seeing  men  vent  feelings  of  malice  and 
hatred,  the  realisation  that  the  good  He 
was  doing  them  was  being  misunderstood, 
the  doubt  as  to  the  present  success  at  least 
of  His  Messianic  mission — for  these  things 
there  seemed  to  be  neither  excuse  nor  ex- 
tenuation. These  pierced  Him  to  the  heart. 
And  has  the  spirit  that  actuated  the  chief 
priests  and  scribes  in  their  treatment  of 
Jesus  passed  away  ?  Men,  even  the  most 
hostile  to  Him  and  to  the  institutions  He 
has  created,  would  shrink  with  horror  from 
the  idea  of  inflicting  physical  pain  upon 
such  an  one  as  He  was.  But  do  they  not 
still  pass  from  misunderstanding  to  rejec- 
tion of  Him  ?  Do  they  not  with  their  evil 
and  unworthy  thoughts  of  Him  still  cause 
Him  to  "suffer  many  things.'*  Do  they 
not  by  their  contemptuous  treatment  "of 
the  least "  of  His  brethren,  by  their  proud 
and  censorious  attitude  towards  His  gospel 
of  compassion,  still   grieve    and   break   His 

89 


The  Son  of  Man 

heart  ?     The  old    prophet  characterised  the 

ideal  sufferer  as   "  despised  and  rejected  of 

men,  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 

grief."     And  the  description  fits,  and  must 

always  fit,    Jesus   the    sinbearer,  as  long  as 

the  aim  of  His    coming    into    the  world  is 

hindered  and    counteracted    by   the   sins  of 

men. 

3.  Death. 

But  the  valley  of  humiliation  had  a  deeper 
level  for  the  Son  of  Man  to  tread,  even  that 
of  death.  The  Apostle  Paul  in  his  familiar 
portraiture  of  the  ladder  through  which  the 
Eternal  Son  reached  this  depth  points  out 
its  various  rungs.  The  first  step  in  the 
downward  course  was  that  "  he  emptied 
himself";  the  second,  that  He  "took  the 
form  of  a  servant "  ;  the  third,  that  "  he  was 
made  in  the  likeness  of  men  "  ;  the  fourth, 
that  "  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he 
humbled  himself";  and  the  fifth,  that  "he 
became  obedient  unto  death,"  and  the 
Apostle  adds  the  cap  to  the  climax  as  he 
points  to  the  form  of  the  death,  "  Yea,  the 
death  of  the  cross. " 

90 


The  Son  of  Man  a  Victim 

To  submit  to  death  Is,  in  itself,  neither 
misfortune  nor  merit.  It  carries  neither 
honour  nor  deprivation.  Death  coming  at 
the  end  of  full  and  complete  life  may  be  a 
blessing.  An  eminent  scientist  has  pro- 
pounded the  view  that  by  nature  man 
should  be  endowed  with  an  "instinct  for 
death "  just  as  he  is  endowed  with  an 
instinct  for  life.  It  Is  his  meaning  that 
when  life  has  run  Its  course  and  its  stream 
has  spent  Its  force,  there  should  ensue  the 
hunger  and  expectation  for  death  just  as 
naturally  as  the  desire  for  sleep  after  a  day 
of  healthy  toil,  or  the  desire  for  food  and 
drink  after  thorough  depletion.  The  reason 
such  an  instinct  does  not  manifest  itself  in 
human  experience  Is  that  life,  because  of 
unnatural  conditions.  Is  cut  off  before  the 
proper  stage  Is  normally  reached  for  the 
development  of  the  Instinct.  However 
this  may  be,  death  certainly  has  a  place  In 
the  complete  experience  of  a  man,  and  It 
cannot  In  Itself  be  regarded  as  a  curse  except 
in  a  world  that  has  ceased  to  be  normal. 

But  why  should  the  Son  of  Man  be  fut 

91 


The  Son  of  Man 

to  death  ?  To  die  is  one  thing  and  to  be 
put  to  death  is  quite  another.  Why  should 
the  ideal  man  be  put  to  death  ?  Why  indeed, 
except  that  he  came  into  a  world  of  sin,  a 
world  in  which  not  death  as  a  release  from 
earthly  and  purely  physical  conditions  was 
the  ruling  principle,  but  one  pervaded  and 
completely  controlled  by  sin, — a  death  in 
which  sin  is  a  controlling  factor,  a  death  in 
consequence  of  sin. 

Thus  the  death  of  Jesus,  like  His  life,  is 
symbolised  by  the  whole  burnt-offering,  a 
perfect,  absolute,  unqualified  surrender  of 
His  whole  self,  an  unreserved  dedication  of 
His  personality  to  the  work  He  undertook  to 
accomplish  and  to  the  will  of  His  Heavenly 
Father.  "Yea,  the  death  of  the  cross," 
exclaims  the  Apostle  as  he  contemplates  the 
self-sacrifice  of  the  Saviour  of  mankind. 
The  Son  of  Man  must,  indeed,  be  put  to 
death. 


92 


VI 

THE  SON  OF  MAN  TRIUMPHANT 


VI 

THE   SON  OF  MAN  TRIUMPHANT 

Mark  ix.  9,  viii.  38   (Matt.  xii.  40,  xvii.  12, 
xiii.  41,  xvi.  27,  28,  xxvi.  64). 

It  appeared  an  incredible  thing  to  the  disciples 
of  Jesus  that  He  whom  they  believed  to  be 
the  Messiah  and  who  called  Himself  the  Son 
of  Man  to  them,  should  be  put  to  death. 
The  prediction  of  such  an  event  was  so 
startling  and  perplexing  that  the  spokesman 
of  the  group  must  needs  voice  the  protest  of 
the  faithful  and  loving  followers.  In  this 
prediction  what  they  saw  of  the  supernatural 
element  in  their  leader  must  have  seemed  to 
contradict  itself.  Trusting  in  the  super- 
natural knowledge  of  their  Master,  they  must 
believe  His  foreshadowing  of  His  tragic  end  ; 
but  again,  thinking  of  His  supernatural  power 
as  a  worker  of  miracles,  could  they  believe 

95 


The  Son  of  Man 

that  it  was  necessary  for  Him  to  surrender 
Himself  to  His  enemies  ? 

Moreover,  why  should  He  be  put  to  death  ? 
He  was  no  vehement  preacher  of  sedition. 
What  possible  ground  could  there  be  upon 
which  just  action  leading  to  His  death  could 
be  taken  by  the  rulers  ?  Were  He,  like  some 
former  claimants  to  the  Messiahship,  the 
organizer  of  an  open  rebellion  against  the 
powers  that  be,  His  gloomy  outlook  into  the 
future  might  have  some  plausibility ;  but 
for  a  teacher  of  righteousness,  for  a  law- 
abiding  citizen  such  as  He  was,  the  only  just 
recompense  must  be  a  supernatural,  or  as 
we  nowadays  call  it,  "  apocalyptic "  ratifica- 
tion and  establishment  of  His  Messiahship. 

But  if  it  was  bold  for  Jesus  to  predict  His 
own  violent  death,  it  was  quite  as  bold,  if 
not  indeed  much  bolder,  to  predict  His  rising 
from  the  tomb.  Here,  too,  was  an  outlook 
highly  improbable  in  itself.  The  resurrection 
idea,  though  not  unfamiliar  to  the  disciples, 
was  by  them,  as  it  was  by  the  Pharisees, 
associated  with  the  remote  event  of  the  end 
of  the  world,  the  great  "  Day  of  Jehovah." 

96 


The  Son  of  Man  Triumphant 

For  a  resurrection  to  happen  as  a  sporadic 
event  to  any  individual  was  very  hard  indeed, 
if  not  impossible,  to  believe.  And  yet  the 
combination  of  the  two  predictions  of  death 
and  resurrection  must  have  helped  to  lessen 
the  difficulty  of  believing  either  separately. 
Just  because  He  could  and  should  rise  again, 
the  Son  of  Man  might  look  upon  His  violent 
death  with  equanimity.  In  some  way  not 
to  be  clearly  seen.  His  death  might  be  the 
means  towards  the  accomplishment  of  a 
higher  end,  if  only  He  were  to  shake  Himself 
free  of  the  power  of  death  in  the  end.  And 
again,  if  Jesus  was  to  die  as  the  Messiah,  His 
resurrection  would  at  once  be  taken  out  of 
the  class  of  ordinary  events  and  placed  in  an 
entirely  different  category.  Thus  in  the 
Son  of  Man  apparent  contradictions  are 
always  reconciled.  If  He  exhibits  weakness 
before  the  eyes  of  men,  it  is  in  order  to  show 
strength.  If  He  is  strong,  it  is  that  He  may 
give  up  His  strength  in  the  struggle  for  the 
good  of  His  loved  ones.  His  defeat  is  His 
triumph. 


97 


The  Son  of  Man 

I.  The  Resurrection  of  the 
Son  of  Man. 

That  the  Chosen  of  Fortune  could  not 
remain  a  permanent  victim  of  misfortune  has 
been  the  widespread  belief  and  conviction  of 
all  ages.  It  is,  indeed,  the  counterpart  of  the 
prophetic  "  Thou  wilt  not  suffer  thy  Holy 
One  to  see  corruption.'*  Unless  it  be  re- 
garded as  a  gratuitous  introduction  of  prodigy 
into  human  thought,  the  resurrection  of 
Osiris  or  Adonis  means  the  confidence  that 
what  has  flourished  in  glory  is  ever  stronger 
than  the  powers  of  decay. 

The  Persian  sages  argued  that  it  is  easier 
to  bring  back  into  life  one  who  has  died  than 
to  create  him  out  of  nothing.  For  in  creating, 
the  creator  must  bring  into  being  both  the 
idea  and  the  material  of  the  creature,  whereas 
in  the  restoring  the  dead  to  life  the  idea  was 
already  in  existence.  The  pattern  is  at  hand, 
and  all  that  is  needed  is  to  give  it  back  its 
power  and  substance.  Or,  to  put  it  in  another 
form,  creation,  because  it  must  proceed  without 
antecedents,  must  be  harder  than  resurrection 

98 


The  Son  of  Man  Triumphant 

with  the  path  already  marked  out  for  it  by 
creation.  But  Persian  sage,  Greek  philo- 
sopher, and  Hebrew  seer  alike  resorted  to 
the  idea  of  resurrection  as  a  protest  against 
the  idea  that  the  noble  and  great  among  men 
should  be  in  the  end  swallowed  up  in  non- 
existence. 

In  all  these  earlier  premonitions  of  a 
possible  rising  to  life  of  those  who  had  died, 
it  is  only  the  select  that  are  thought  of  as 
entitled  to  the  privilege.  "  Thou  shalt  not 
suffer  thy  beloved  one  to  see  corruption." 
In  the  case  of  Osiris,  it  was  the  demigod  who 
through  resurrection  was  deified.  The  hero 
who  possessed  irrepressible  energy  or  inde- 
structible life  might  aspire  to  victory  over 
the  pov^ers  of  darkness.  There  was  no  com- 
fort in  this  to  the  ordinary  man.  Hence  it 
does  not  appear  that  belief  in  the  resurrection 
of  an  Osiris  or  an  Adonis  had  any  bearing 
whatever  on  the  everyday  life  of  the  devotee 
of  the  ancient  cults. 

Quite  different  is  the  function  of  the 
belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  Christ  in 
the    New  Testament.      From    the    moment 

99 


The  Son  of  Man 

when  Jesus  predicted  it  the  event  is  associ- 
ated with  His  public  work  as  Saviour.  It  is 
not  for  Himself  that  He  either  dies  or  rises 
again  not  to  display  His  power  over  the 
world  principle,  nor  to  illustrate  a  cosmic 
law,  nor  yet  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  con- 
viction that  a  noble,  a  pre-eminent  soul 
might  enjoy  a  rare  privilege,  but  that  the 
whole  race  might  be  made  partakers  of  eternal 
life.  His  resurrection  is  not  meant  as  the 
occasion  of  arousing  sympathy  for  and  fellow- 
ship in  His  joy,  but  to  assure  of  an  inner  and 
vital  identification  of  Himself  with  them. 

Thus  the  whole  treatment  of  the  saving 
work  of  Jesus  in  the  apostolic  references  to 
it  co-ordinates  His  resurrection  with  His 
death.  As  He  dies  in  order  to  give  His 
life  a  ransom  for  many,  so  He  rises  in  order 
to  bring  many  into  a  new  life.  Paul  clearly 
and  logically  establishes  this  connection. 
"  He  was  delivered  for  our  offences,  and 
was  raised  again  for  our  justification  "  (Rom. 
iv.  25).  But  He  is  not  alone  in  making  the 
resurrection  the  corner-stone  of  salvation. 
"  God,"  according  to  Peter,  "  begat  us  again 

100 


The  Son  of  Man  Triumphant 

unto  a  living  hope  by  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead"  (i  Pet.  i.  3). 
John  has  so  thoroughly  apprehended  the 
significance  of  the  resurrection  of  the  Master 
that  he  not  only  gives  the  most  extensive 
and  detailed  account  of  the  event,  but  pre- 
serves the  immortal  and  invaluable  utterance  : 
"  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life  "  (John  xi. 

One  does  not  wonder  that  whereas  the 
working  out  of  the  resurrection  thought 
around  the  story  of  Osiris  and  around  the 
story  of  Adonis  once  flourished  in  the 
form  of  a  mere  myth,  but  has  now  been 
left  to  the  archaeologist,  tne  historian,  and 
the  lover  of  folklore  to  cherish,  the  resur- 
rection fact  of  the  Gospel,  the  return  from 
the  tomb  of  Jesus,  has  retained  all  its  first 
vitality  :  yea,  and  that  it  has  gained  with 
every  new  interweaving  of  it  into  human 
experience. 

2.  The  Victory  over  Death. 

Thus  far  we  have  followed  the  thought  of 
the  resurrection    of   Jesus    involved  in  His 

lOI 


The  Son  of  Man 

Messiahship.  *'Thou  wilt  not  suffer  thy 
Holy  One  to  see  corruption  "  ;  not,  however, 
for  His  own  sake.  Nothing  that  enters  into 
the  experience  of  the  Messiah,  the  Son  of 
Man,  is  for  His  own  sake.  He  is  not  suffered 
to  see  corruption  in  order  that  His  holy  ones 
might  be  associated  with  Him  in  His  joys  and 
have  the  assurance  that  though  the  worst  had 
happened  to  them  they  can  still  maintain  their 
place  and  privilege  as  the  children  of  God. 

The  Son  of  Man  is  not  exempt  from 
suffering  and  death  in  a  world  of  sin.  How 
then  can  any  other  man  expect  to  be  ?  But 
the  Son  of  Man  has  triumphed  over  suffer- 
ing and  death  ;  he  has  defied  it,  and  it  has 
done  its  worst  on  him  ;  yet  he  has  won  the 
victory  over  it  at  its  strongest.  Even  death 
lies  conquered  and  shorn  of  its  terrors  at 
his  feet.  Therefore  all  the  sons  of  men  for 
all  time  may  look  to  the  final  victory  over 
suffering  and  death. 

"  Jesus  rose,  no  longer  now 

Can  thy  terrors,  death,  appal  me ; 
Jesus  rose,  and  well  I  know 

From  the  grave  He  will  recall  me." 
I02 


The  Son   of  Man  Triumphant 

The  revolutionary  significance  of  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  for  the  experience  of 
death,  though  at  first  glance  obvious  enough, 
can  be  easily  underestimated.  The  antici- 
pation of  death  has  a  tendency  to  distress, 
depress,  and  even  paralyse  the  normal  move- 
ment of  life.  There  are  times  and  circum- 
stances in  which  the  expectation  comes  with 
even  terrifying  force.  In  its  mildest  form 
the  emotion  excited,  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
aged  who  have  lived  the  full  measure  of 
days  on  earth,  is  one  of  deep  regret.  There 
is  a  pathetic  passage  in  one  of  Herbert 
Spencer's  latest  letters,  in  which,  after  attain- 
ing his  eightieth  birthday,  he  faces  the 
prospect  of  speedy  dissolution,  and  speaks 
of  the  sadness  that  fills  his  soul  as  he  thinks 
that  soon  the  world  of  birds  and  flowers,  of 
sunshine  and  blue  skies,  of  progress  in 
knowledge  and  enjoyment  of  friendships, 
must  close  to  him. 

And  the  fuller  and  purer  has  been  the 
stream  of  life,  the  greater  the  regret  at  its 
running  dry.  The  nobler  the  aspirations, 
the  more  strenuous  the  endeavours  to  achieve 

103 


The  Son  of  Man 

ideals,  the  greater  the  self-denials  in  the 
struggle  for  better  things,  the  greater  the 
waste  and  loss  and  the  consequent  pathos  at 
the  view  of  the  cutting  off  of  life  even  at  the 
end  of  its  normal  length.  "If  in  this  life 
only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all 
men  most  miserable."  "  If  after  the  manner 
of  men  I  have  fought  with  beasts  at  Ephesus, 
what  advantageth  it  me,  if  the  dead  rise  not  ? 
Let  us  eat  and  drink  ;  for  to-morrow  we 
die"  (i  Cor.  xv.  19,  32).  Thus  wrote  one 
whose  years  were  comparatively  full  ;  he 
was  not  a  very  young  man  ;  and  his  life  had 
been  full  of  good  works  ;  yet  he  found  no 
perfect  satisfaction  in  the  backward  look ; 
nor  will  any  one  in  a  healthy  frame  of  mind. 
The  soul  must  be  able  to  look  forward  in 
order  to  feel  that  it  has  had  fair  treatment 
in  the  struggle  of  life. 

But  the  case  is  even  more  serious,  more 
full  of  pathos  and  sadness,  when,  instead  of 
coming  to  the  end  of  a  long  and  full  career, 
man  is  cut  off  in  the  midst  of  his  days. 
Add  to  this  the  frequent  and  unaccountable, 
either   physically  or    morally,  association  of 

104 


The  Son  of  Man  Triumphant 

pain  and  disease  with  the  ending  of  life. 
What  is  more  pathetic  than  the  sight  of  a 
young  person  stricken  with  an  incurable 
malady,  desirous  to  live,  full  of  hope,  and 
even  of  determination,  realising  that  hopes 
and  prayers  and  efforts  of  will  and  skill 
must  alike  prove  futile  ?  How  even  the 
Christian  world  stands  dumbfounded  and 
staggered  by  the  untimely  taking  away  of 
some  heroic  young  man,  like  Henry 
Martyn,  David  Brainerd,  Ion  Keith-Falconer, 
or  William  Whiting  Borden,  whose  life 
promised  so  much  for  the  advancement  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  And  if  the  gospel 
were  a  religion  of  this  world  and  for  this 
world  only,  the  misgivings  and  forebodings 
of  Christendom  in  such  circumstances  would 
be  justified.  But  the  rising  of  the  Son  of 
Man  from  the  dead  puts  an  entirely 
different  aspect  both  on  the  peaceful  depart- 
ure of  the  aged  and  of  the  strong  and  active 
man  in  the  flower  of  his  manhood.  Death 
is  not  the  conqueror,  but  the  servant  of  life. 
The  worst  that  could  have  been  done  has 
been  done,  and  the  Son  of  Man  remains  not 

105 


The  Son  of  Man 

only  unscathed,  but  master  over  his  ad- 
versary. He  has  the  enemy  at  his  mercy. 
There  are  conflicts  which  end  in  the  an- 
nihilation of  either  party.  They  can  end 
in  no  other  way.  The  contestants  are 
absolutely  incompatible  with  one  another. 
As  long  as  they  both  live  they  n:>ust  con- 
tend for  the  extermination  of  the  other. 
Such  is  the  conflict  of  Christ  and  sin,  but 
not  such  was  the  conflict  between  Christ 
and  death.  It  was  rather  a  contest  for  place. 
Death  being  conquered,  he  becomes  the 
obedient  minister  of  the  Lord  of  Life. 
Therefore  the  Church  has  ever  sung  : 

"Alleluia;   The  strife  is  o'er,  the  battle  done; 
The  victory  of  life  is  won  ; 
The  song  of  triumph  has  begun. 

The  powers  of  death  have  done  their  worst ; 
But  Christ  their  legions  hath  dispersed ; 
Let  shouts  of  holy  joy  outburst.    Alleluia." 

3.  The  Son  of  Man  in  Glory. 

But    rising    from    the    dead,    great    and 
wonderful  and  meaningful   as  the  fact  may 

106 


The  Son  of  Man  Triumphant 

be,  is  not  all  that  the  Son  of  Man  has 
achieved.  He  has  ascended  into  glory. 
"What  is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of 
him  ?  or  the  son  of  man,  that  thou  visitest 
him  ?  "  sang  the  ancient  Psalmist.  And  the 
New  Testament  writer,  quoting  the  words 
and  applying  them  to  Jesus,  adds  as  he 
explains  their  meaning :  "  But  now  we 
behold  him,  who  has  been  made  a  little  lower 
than  the  angels,  even  Jesus,  because  of  the 
suffering  of  death,  crowned  with  glory  and 
honour  **  (Heb.  ii.  5-8).  "  Crowned  with 
glory  and  honour "  for  the  suffering  of 
death  !  The  experience  of  death,  then,  adds 
to  the  lustre  of  the  crown  which  was  His 
from  the  beginning.  It  may  even  be  said 
that  it  was  a  new  crown  He  won  through 
death  and  resurrection.  The  Cross  and  the 
victory  over  death  do  not  merely  replace 
things  in  the  order  in  which  they  were 
before  sin.  Redemption  is  no  mere  restitu- 
tion. It  involves  an  advance.  There  are 
diseases  which,  when  healed,  lead  to  purer 
health  than  that  enjoyed  before  they  came. 
There  are   misfortunes,  the    overcoming  of 

107 


The  Son  of  Man 

which  leaves  a  greater  blessing  than  could 
have  come  without  them.  It  is  well  at 
times  to  preserve  a  structure  in  its  primitive 
simplicity ;  but  when  that  structure  has 
been  wrecked,  to  take  up  the  ruins  and 
make  them  over  into  a  grander  and  more 
stately  edifice,  this  is,  indeed,  the  noble  part 
of  the  true  artist.  It  is  conceivable  that  the 
almighty  Creator  might  have  prevented  the 
entrance  of  sin  into  the  world.  But  after 
sin  did  enter,  that  He  should  take  up  the 
ruins  and  reconstitute  them  into  a  better 
world  than  one  that  has  never  known  sin, 
this  is  His  glory.  "  Where  sin  abounded, 
grace  did  abound  more  exceedingly  "  (Rom. 
V.  20).  The  gain  through  redemption  is 
greater  than  the  loss  through  sin.  The 
glory  after  the  resurrection  is  more  brilliant 
than  the  pleasure  of  a  life  without  sacrifice 
and  death. 

We  are  not  disturbed  in  this  thought  by 
the  logical  and  purely  speculative  considera- 
tion, that  if  Christ  was  a  divine  person  His 
glory  in  His  pre-existence  could  not  be  in- 
creased by  resurrection,  as  it  could  not  have 

108 


The  Son  of  Man  Triumphant 

been  diminished  by  the  humiliation  of  the 
incarnation.  Since  as  God  He  did  yearn  for 
those  who  needed  His  saving  ministry,  and 
since  He  did  "  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before 
him  endure  the  cross,  despising  the  shame," 
and  that  "he  hath  sat  down  at  the  right 
hand  of  God,"  it  must  needs  be  that  the 
reward  adds  something  to  His  satisfaction, 
that  "  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him " 
was  greater  than  that  He  was  possessing 
before. 

But  what,  after  all,  is  the  glory  of  God  ? 
What  is  the  glory  of  the  Son  of  Man  ? 
The  glory  of  God  is  surely  nothing  else 
than  the  glow  of  the  warmth  of  His  love 
spreading  and  engulfing  ever  increasing 
multitudes  of  His  children.  Men  glorify 
God  not  when  they  stand  in  awe  of  His  in- 
conceivable greatness,  or  obey  His  will  out  of 
sheer  dread  lest  by  disobeying  they  bring 
wrath  and  condemnation  on  themselves,  or 
by  chanting  His  praise  in  words  and  strains 
carrying  no  depth  of  meaning,  but  when 
they  yield  themselves  to  His  love  and  allow 
Him  to  work  His  gracious  will  through  them. 

109 


The  Son  of  Man 

It  is  thus  that  He  gets  honour  to  Himself 
through  them. 

What  then,  once  more,  is  the  glory  of  the 
Son  of  Man  ?  Jesus  told  His  disciples  that 
His  meat  and  drink  was  to  do  the  will  of  the 
Father  that  sent  Him.  The  glory  of  the  Son 
of  Man  is  to  induce  the  largest  number 
possible  of  His  brethren  to  come  within  the 
reach  of  the  Father's  love.  The  glory  of 
the  Son  of  Man  is  the  light  which  issues 
from  His  countenance  as  He  contemplates 
the  blessedness  created  by  His  successful 
achievement  of  the  work  of  redemption. 
"  He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and 
shall  be  satisfied"  (Isa.  liii.  ii).  This  must 
be  taken  as  the  standard  and  measure  of  the 
glory  of  the  Redeemer  at  the  right  hand  of 
God. 

The  tyrant  may  count  it  his  glory  that 
men  fear  him  and  obey  him.  The  pompous 
potentate  may  deem  it  his  glory  that  the 
dazzling  splendour  of  his  robes  and  the 
glittering  crown  he  wears  fill  the  poverty- 
stricken  multitude  with  amazement  and 
envy.       The    worldling    may    think    it    his 

no 


The  Son  of  Man  Triumphant 

glory  when  men  praise  his  genius  and 
applaud  his  wonderful  achievements,  or 
even  his  goodness  and  kindly  disposition. 
But  the  mother's  glory  consists  in  the 
genuine  well-doing  (not  merely  the  welfare) 
of  those  whom  she  has  nourished  and  cared 
for.  "Behold  my  jewels,"  she  says,  in  the 
person  of  the  Roman  matron.  It  was  the 
glory  of  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi  to  have 
given  herself  for  her  sons  and  to  see  in  them 
realised  her  best  ideals  for  herself. 

This  was  in  a  manner  signified  when  Jesus 
broke  forth  into  rejoicing  as  He  was  told  of 
the  desire  of  the  Greeks  to  see  Him  at 
Jerusalem.  "The  hour  is  come  that  the 
Son  of  Man  should  be  glorified  "  (John  xii. 
23,  24).  These  Greeks  were  the  vanguard  of 
a  vast  army,  the  first  arrivals  of  an  endless 
migration.  They  evoked  the  vision  before 
His  eyes  of  the  world-wide  movement  of  the 
Gentiles  toward  Him.  The  multitudes, 
invisible  to  others,  were  seen  by  His  own 
keen  eyes.  The  hour  had  already  struck. 
The  love  of  God  which  He  had  made  known 
and  available  to  all  would  be  presently  tasted 

1 1 1 


The  Son  of  Man 

by  the  world  for  which  He  was  to  give  His 
life  a  ransom.  This  was,  indeed,  a  reward 
to  be  enjoyed  and  at  the  same  time  a  goal  to 
be  achieved.  No  wonder  that  it  filled  His 
soul  with  inexpressible  emotion  and  led  Him 
to  the  sacrifice  that  He  must  make  with  new 
determination.  What  if  that  sacrifice  seemed 
to  be  the  effacement  of  Himself?  "Except 
a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die, 
it  abideth  by  itself  alone  ;  but  if  it  die,  it 
beareth  much  fruit."  He  was  glorified  in  that 
he  bore  much  fruit. 

The  resurrection  of  the  Son  of  Man,  His 
triumph  over  death.  His  reduction  of  the 
last  enemy  into  not  merely  a  harmless 
adversary,  but  into  a  willing  and  useful 
minister  of  good.  His  ascent  into  His  glory, 
are  not  for  Himself  alone.  They  are  like 
the  wealth  for  which  the  father  of  the  house- 
hold toils  and  plans,  to  be  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  his  loved  ones.  He  can  only 
enjoy  them  in  full  as  he  shares  them  in  full 
with  those  who  belong  to  him,  of  whom  he 
also  says  in  his  intercessory  prayer,  "I  am 
glorified  in  them." 

112 


VII 


THE  SON  OF  MAN  IN  THE  WORLD'S 
FUTURE 


VII 

THE  SON  OF  MAN  IN  THE 
WORLD'S  FUTURE 

Mark   xiii.   26,  xiv.  62    (Matt.   x.   23,  xxv.    13,   31, 
xxiv.  30;   Luke  ix.  26,  xll.  40,  xviii.  8,  xxi.  27). 

To  the  modern  mind  one  of  the  most  strik- 
ing features  of  Apostolic  and  early  Christian 
thought  is  the  strength  and  widespread  pre- 
valence of  the  belief  that  Jesus  was  to  make 
a  second  appearance  very  shortly.  The  man 
of  the  twentieth  century  is  bound  to  ask  : 
"  How  did  this  belief  arise  ?  and  why  was 
it  so  firmly  and  vividly  held  ? "  One 
answer  to  these  questions  is,  that  Jesus  Him- 
self predicted  His  early  second  coming. 
The  scholarship  of  these  latter  days  is  largely 
behind  this  view.  Grudgingly  at  first,  and 
with  many  misgivings  on  the  part  of  some, 
the    concession    has    been    made    to    exact 

115 


The  Son  of  Man 

historical  research.  Jesus  did  cast  His 
message  concerning  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  into  a  form  carrying  in 
itself  the  idea  of  His  own  coming  again  in 
visible  splendour,  and  that  within  the  lifetime 
of  His  hearers. 

But  behind  the  utterances  of  Jesus  and 
conditioning  them  lay  the  Old  Testament 
picture  of  the  Messianic  reign.  Whatever 
else  this  picture  might  or  might  not  mean 
in  detail  to  the  mind  of  the  time  of  Jesus, 
it  did  convey  the  idea  of  a  dispensation  of 
ideal  conditions  and  invaluable  blessings. 
And,  since  Jesus  had  not  fulfilled  in  a 
visible  and  tangible  form  this  promise  of 
prophecy,  if  He  was  indeed  the  Messiah,  the 
only  logical  inference  must  be  that  He  had 
postponed  this  part  of  the  Messianic  work 
to  a  later  date.  He  must  then  come  again 
to  complete  His  work.  It  might  thus  be 
said  the  belief  in  the  Second  Coming  was  an 
inevitable  corollary  of  the  acceptance  of  Him 
as  the  Messiah  of  Prophecy. 

But  modes  of  expression  used  by  Jesus 
and  the  Old  Testament  conceptions  of  the 

ii6 


Son  of  Man  in  World's  Future 

Messiah  are  alike  historical  outcroppings  of 
a  more  deep-rooted  reality  and  a  fundamental 
need  in  human  nature  which  this  reality 
meets  and  satisfies.  The  conviction  that 
the  Son  of  Man  was  to  get  complete  control 
of  the  organisation  of  humanity  and  manifest 
His  will  in  a  perfect,  and  perfectly  just,  order 
of  social  life,  would  not  have  secured  its  hold 
on  the  minds  of  men,  either  in  its  Jewish  or 
in  its  Christian  form,  were  it  not  that  the 
human  heart  at  its  best  moments  hungers  just 
for  that  consummation,  and  that  there  is  a  real 
culmination  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  which 
satisfies  this  spiritual  hunger.  It  is  this  that 
best  explains  both  the  words  of  Jesus  and 
the  enthusiastic  acceptance  and  vigorous  and 
joyful  transmission  of  the  truth  of  the 
Second  Coming  of  the  Master. 

I.  The  Certainty  of  the  Second 
Coming. 

The  assurance  that  the  Christ  would  make 
a  second  entrance  into  the  world  of  human 
affairs  is  interlinked  with  the  fact  of  His 
resurrection    and     ascension.       "He    shall 

117 


The  Son  of  Man 

come "  means  first  of  all  that  He  is  absent 
to  the  eye  of  the  body,  but  real  to  the  eye 
of  faith  ;  He  rules  as  the  King  of  glory.  The 
term  which  the  early  Christians  used  was  not 
"  second  "  coming,  or  coming  of  any  kind, 
but  "Presence"  {Tarousia).  It  was  the 
transformation  of  the  existence  of  the  Master 
from  a  hidden  reality  to  an  actively  felt 
presence  that  appealed  to  them  and  impressed 
them,  the  change  from  faith  to  sight,  the 
perfecting  of  the  experience  of  companion- 
ship with  Him  in  the  restoration  of  ideal 
order  to  the  world  by  the  inclusion  in  it  of 
the  physical  side  of  His  being. 

The  Presence  of  the  Master  is  from  this 
point  of  view  a  bringing  into  visibility  of 
the  invisible.  It  is  described  as  a  "  manifes- 
tation," a  "  revelation,"  an  "  appearing." 
"  When  he  shall  appear,"  "  If  he  shall 
appear,"  says  John  (i  John  iii.  3).  "When 
Christ,  who  is  our  life,  shall  be  manifested," 
says  Paul  (Col.  iii.  4).  When  Paul  would 
impress  it  upon  the  mind  of  the  young 
Timothy  that  his  duties  as  a  servant  of  the 
gospel  are  of  a  most  important  character,  he 

118 


Son  of  Man  in  World's   Future 

charges  him  by  "  the  appearing  (of  the 
Christ)  "  (2  Tim.  iv.  i).  When  he  would 
commend  to  Titus  a  pure  life  as  the  subject 
of  preaching,  he  points  to  "  the  hope  and 
appearing  of  the  glory  of  the  Great  God  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ"  (Tit.  ii.  13).  Peter 
likewise  holds  up  "  the  revelation  (A.V. 
"appearing")  of  Jesus  Christ"  (i  Pet.  i.  2) 
as  a  ground  for  patient  endurance  of  present 
affliction. 

The  assurance  of  the  future  disclosure  of 
Him  is  even  now  a  vivid  reality  and  a 
guarantee  of  his  continued  interest  in  our 
present  efforts  and  struggles.  He  has  not 
gone  from  the  world  and  left  us  with  a  fund 
of  good,  which  henceforth  we  may  use 
irresponsibly,  which  we  may  risk  and 
possibly  lose.  He  shall  come  again  ! 
Therefore  all  we  do  is  of  consequence  to 
Him.  Thus  in  all  the  allusions  to  the 
future  Return  as  a  "  revelation,"  or 
"  manifestation,"  there  is  a  practical  aim  in 
view. 

First  of  all,  the  hope  of  His  coming  again 
becomes  "an  anchor  of  the  soul,  both  sure 

119 


The  Son  of  Man 

and  steadfast."  Men  dared  in  the  Apostolic 
days,  and  have  dared  ever  since,  to  stand  by 
what  they  have  received  from  Christ,  because 
they  have  known  that  He  would  justify  them 
in  their  trust  of  Him,  and  prove  to  a  gain- 
saying world  that  they  were  not  deceived, 
that  they  had  not  misplaced  their  confidence. 
There  were  hours  of  temptation  in  those 
early  days.  There  have  been  hours  of  dark- 
ness and  trial  ever  since.  Nor  is  the  time 
for  them  past.  All  through  these  the  call  of 
the  Master  is  the  same  :  "  That  which  ye 
have,  hold  fast  till  I  come "  (Rev.  ii.  25). 
Thus  has  this  hope  worked  out  the  conser- 
vation of  gain  in  Christian  experience.  In 
facing  all  enmity,  all  opposition  and  effort 
to  despoil  one  of  his  treasure  as  a  Christian, 
let  this  word  but  be  spoken  and  the  soul  is 
filled  with  courage  and  steadfastness. 

In  another  direction  the  same  confidence 
becomes  a  strong  motive  for  watchfulness. 
All  expectation  begets  vigilance.  The  evil 
we  expect  stirs  us  to  watch  and  be  ready  to 
meet  and  fight  it.  From  this  point  of  view, 
considering  the  effect  of  His  coming  on  the 

120 


Son  of  Man  in  World's  Future 

weak  and  those  who  might  be  found  In 
default  of  duty,  the  Master  compares  His 
coming  to  that  of  a  thief  in  the  night.  The 
emphasis  is  on  the  uncertainty  as  to  the 
time.  Watchfulness  is  a  needed  means  to 
preserve  from  the  despondency  and  the 
running  low  of  the  powers  which  result  in 
letting  go  and  giving  up.  "Watch,  there- 
fore, for  ye  know  not  the  day  nor  the  hour  " 
(Mark  xiii.  33). 

But  there  is  another  sort  of  watchfulness 
resulting  from  expectation  of  good.  "  When 
the  Son  of  Man  cometh  shall  he  find  faith 
on  the  earth  ^ "  (Luke  xviii.  8).  He  shall. 
Because  there  shall  be  many  who  shall  be 
eagerly  looking  forward  to  the  privilege  and 
the  blessing  of  fellowship  with  Him.  Being 
assured  that  at  least,  so  far  as  it  concerns 
them.  His  coming  is  not  in  wrath  but  in  love, 
they  shall  strain  their  eyes  even  as  children 
do  upon  the  road  on  which  they  expect 
momentarily  to  see  the  gladdening  figures 
of  their  absent  parents.  These  are  they 
whose  prayer  does  not  cease  to  ascend  day 
nor  night :  "  Amen.     Come,  Lord  Jesus." 

121 


The  Son  of  Man 

Once  more,  this  confidence  becomes  an 
aggressive  power,  working  out  purification 
and  progress.  For,  after  all,  life,  if  it  shall 
be  worth  while,  must  be  something  more 
than  a  mere  struggle  for  existence,  a  mere 
battle  for  the  defence  of  a  treasure,  no 
matter  how  great  and  precious.  There  must 
be  before  it  a  prospect  of  advancement.  The 
possibility  of  increasing  its  gains  must  be 
guaranteed  to  it  as  well  as  the  possibility  of 
conserving  its  gains  or  the  original  fund 
entrusted  to  it.  "  And  every  one  that  hath 
this  hope  in  him  purifieth  himself,  even  as 
he  is  pure"  (i  John  iii.  3).  For  he  reasons 
that  that  which  he  is  to  be,  and  that  which 
he  ought  to  be,  it  is  worth  while  for  him  to 
begin  to  be,  since  "  we  know  that,  if  he  shall 
be  manifested,  we  shall  be  like  him  ;  for  we 
shall  see  him  as  he  is."  Growth  in  all  that 
pertains  to  the  type  of  life  begotten  by  the 
Son  of  Man  is  given  a  strong  impulse  and 
motive. 

The  early  Christians  were  not  only  buoyed 
and  sustained  by  the  expectation  of  the 
Second    Advent   of    the    Master,    but    also 

122 


Son  of  Man  in  World's  Future 

stimulated  to  most  astonishing  missionary 
efforts.  This  means  that  It  was  with  them 
a  hope  and  not  a  fear.  At  the  end  of  the 
tenth  century  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
the  same  expectation  revived.  The  end  of 
the  world  at  the  close  of  the  first  millennium 
of  Christianity  was  preached  by  many  and 
believed  by  more.  But,  instead  of  resulting 
in  purer  lives  and  more  earnest  efforts  to 
spread  the  gospel,  it  issued  In  excesses  and 
riots  of  licentiousness  such  as  have  rarely 
been  surpassed  in  any  period.  Those  who 
looked  forward  to  it  were  filled  with  fear  ; 
they  were  morally  paralysed  and  petrified  ; 
they  were  carried  away  helpless  victims  to 
the  evil  that  was  In  them.  "  Maranatha " 
(The  Lord  cometh)  does  indeed  become 
anathema  "  if  any  man  loveth  not  the  Lord  " 
(i  Cor.  xvl.  2^).  To  serve  as  a  conserving 
and  stimulating  Influence,  the  belief  in  the 
Presence  of  the  Christ  must  be  a  living  hope. 

2.  The  Manifold  Aspect  of  the  Hope. 

While  the  conviction  that  the  Master  shall 
reveal  Himself  in   the  future  is  a  constant 

123 


The  Son  of  Man 

and  universal  accompaniment  and  fruit  of 
Christian  faith,  it  assumes  a  large  number 
and  variety  of  forms.  Some  of  these  are 
apparently  contradictory  of  one  another,  and 
those  who  entertain  them  are  apt  at  times  to 
appear  to  one  another  as  not  holding  to  the 
conviction  at  all. 

In  some  Christians  a  sense  is  developed 
of  the  Master's  presence  and  companionship 
as  a  living  and  powerful  reality  in  such  a 
manner  that  they  cannot  conceive  of  Him  as 
either  ever  having  gone  away  or  as  coming 
again.  Bodily  and  material  reappearance 
would  add  nothing  to  the  comfort  these 
have  in  the  sense  of  His  nearness.  What 
could  be  the  meaning,  for  instance,  of  a 
Second  Coming  to  a  person  like  Frances 
Ridley  Havergal,  who  said  that  she  could 
not  conceive  of  the  ascension  of  Christ,  since 
to  her  He  was  always  present  ?  Or  could 
one  like  Charles  Spurgeon  take  any  personal 
interest  in  a  visible  Second  Advent  who  is 
reported  to  have  said,  that  never  for  even 
fifteen  minutes  in  his  experience  had  he 
missed    the    sense   of    Christ's    nearness   to 

124 


Son  of  Man  in  World's  Future 

himself?  And  what  shall  we  say  of  the 
long  line  of  mystics  who  habitually  saw  their 
Saviour  not  merely  in  ceremony  and  symbol, 
but  in  day-dream  and  night  vision  ?  who 
held  converse  with  Him  and  addressed  Him 
not  merely  in  prayer  and  sacrament,  but  in 
the  privacy  of  the  monastic  cell  as  well  as 
in  the  publicity  of  daily  labour  ?  Who  both 
saw  Him  and  heard  Him  "  whether  in  the 
body  or  apart  from  the  body  they  knew 
not  "  ?  Surely  all  these  could  not,  except  by 
a  violent  break  from  the  logic  of  their  own 
experience,  think  of  a  material  Second  Coming 
as  of  vital  import  to  them  ;  surely,  if  they  use 
the  language  of  the  apocalyptists,  it  must  be 
because  of  inability  to  avoid  using  forms  of 
thought  current  in  their  environment. 

It  is  a  question  whether  "  the  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved,"  the  author  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  was  not  the  prototype  of 
this  class  of  Christian.  To  him  the  coming 
again  was  identical  with  the  coming  of  the 
Comforter.  For  does  not  he  report  Jesus 
as  saying  :  "  I  will  not  leave  you  desolate  : 
I  come  unto  you  "  ?  (John  xiv.   1 8  ff,).     In 

125 


The  Son  of  Man 

this  familiar  and  precious  passage,  Jesus, 
according  to  John,  uses  the  word  "  come " 
of  Himself,  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  ;  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  blur  the 
distinction  between  the  coming  of  the  three. 
Of  Himself  He  says,  "  I  go  away,  and  I  come 
unto  you."  And  of  the  joint  coming  of  the 
Father  and  Himself  He  says,  "  If  a  man  love 
me  ...  we  will  come  unto  him,  and  make 
our  abode  with  him."  The  key  to  the 
complicated  usage  seems  to  be  in  the  ex- 
pression :  "  He  that  loveth  me  ...  I  will 
love  him,  and  manifest  myself  unto  him." 
The  coming  of  the  Comforter  was  only  the 
flooding  of  the  world  with  the  light  that  was 
to  reveal  the  presence  of  the  Lord  Himself, 
and  since  the  Father  was  revealed  through 
Him  only.  His  own  manifestation  was  to 
be  the  manifestation  of  the  Father.  Yet  it 
cannot  be  without  significance  that  the  same 
Gospel  is  silent  on  the  apocalyptic  Second 
Coming.  If  the  Master  was  to  be  present 
in  power  among  His  loved  ones.  His  physical 
manifestation  to  the  world  could  possess  for 
them  only  secondary  interest. 

126 


Son  of  Man  in  World's  Future 

There  is  another  type  of  believer  to  whom 
the  presence  of  the  Risen  Redeemer  is  a 
fact  of  experience,  but  not  in  the  immediate 
form  of  the  mystic.  While  he  does  not 
associate  the  presence  of  the  Lord  with 
a  material  phenomenon,  neither  does  he 
altogether  dissociate  it  from  the  world  of 
material  facts.  He  feels  it  through  the 
medium  of  palpable  signs  and  emblems. 
His  heart  burns  within  him  as  he  discourses 
with  the  mysterions  stranger  by  the  way, 
but  it  is  only  "  in  the  breaking  of  bread  '* 
that  the  Master  is  "known  of  him." 

There   is    a  laro-e    class    of  devout    souls 

o 

whose  spiritual  senses  are  dulled  by  the 
humdrum  hubbub  of  daily  routine.  But 
when  they  withdraw  from  the  din  and  strife 
of  worldly  interests  and  employments  and 
tall  under  the  spell  of  an  elaborate  and 
impressive  ritual,  especially  if  it  be  enriched 
with  suggestive  associations  interwoven  into 
it  through  generations  of  human  experience, 
their  apprehension  of  outward  matters  is  in 
its  turn  lulled  to  sleep,  and  the  gently 
awakened     spiritual     sense    recognises     the 

127 


The  Son  of  Man 

"  Vision  of  His  Face."  While  they  muse 
the  fire  burns,  and  in  the  accompanying 
glow  they  see  the  Lord. 

Others  are  not  as  sensitive  to  spiritual 
realities.  They  must  be  startled  by  soul- 
stirring  occurrences.  Some  escape  from  mono- 
tony by  some  great  crisis  in  public  affairs  ; 
the  explosive  detonation  of  a  sudden  and 
stupendous  calamity,  rising  above  all  the 
din  and  turmoil  of  life  like  a  clap  of 
thunder,  is  needed  to  arrest  these  in  their 
course  and  to  enable  them  to  see  the  Lord  in 
the  momentary  lull  following  the  event. 

Still  others  can  only  feel  the  nearness  of 
the  Great  Companion  in  the  fellowship  of 
service  with  Him.  As  they  gird  themselves 
to  the  task  of  relieving  suffering  or  righting 
wrong,  of  bringing  cheer  into  darkened 
places  or  healing  and  restoring  the  broken 
and  bruised,  they  remember  His  words  when 
He  said,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it 
unto  one  of  these  little  ones,  ye  have  done 
it  unto  me,"  they  penetrate  the  disguise 
and  discover  the  Christ. 

It  is  related  of  one  of  these  devout  souls, 

128 


Son  of  Man  in  World's  Future 

a  cobbler  by  trade,  that  he  had  the  assurance 
of  his  Saviour  in  a  dream  that  on  the  next 
day  He  would  visit  him  in  his  shop.  Where- 
at the  faithful  one  made  himself  ready  for 
the  promised  call.  From  his  basement  bench 
he  would  lift  his  eyes  to  the  side-walk  above 
and  listen  to  the  tramp  of  footsteps,  and 
eagerly  imagine  that  each  successive  passer- 
by might  be  the  Master.  And  from  time  to 
time  he  would  leave  his  bench,  go  up  the 
street  and  invite  some  weary  one  to  sit  down 
and  rest  in  his  humble  quarters,  and  offer 
him  refreshing  food  and  drink.  The  even- 
ing came.  The  Master  had  failed  to  keep 
his  promise.  But  during  his  night's  sleep 
the  Master  stood  once  more  beside  his  bed, 
and  as  he  humbly  reminded  Him  of  His  un- 
fulfilled promise,  the  Master  told  him  that 
every  weary  one  he  had  taken  in  and  refreshed 
and  cheered  during  the  course  of  the  day 
was  Himself  in  disguise. 

But  there  arc  also  other  souls  who  are  not 
favoured  with  the  privilege  of  the  Vision  of 
Christ  in  any  of  its  forms.  They  do  not 
doubt  the  testimony  of  their  brethren  who 

1  29 


The  Son  of  Man 

have  glimpses  of  Him,  or  of  those  who  live 
in  His  ever  present  companionship  ;  but  for 
themselves,  they  must  look  into  the  future 
for  that  full  and  intimate  fellowship  which 
their  hearts  crave. 

3.  The  Spiritual  Value  of  the 
Parousia. 

For  every  Christian  the  fact  cannot  help 
but  be  of  the  utmost  importance,  that  there  is 
a  promise  of  a  larger  blessing  and  of  a  purer 
joy  in  the  future  through  Christ's  presence 
in  the  world.  What  is  the  essential  meaning 
of  the  promise  ?  We  shall  not  go  far  astray 
if  we  find  the  answer  in  some  such  form  as 
this  : 

I.  All  the  powers  of  the  world,  known  and 
unknown,  are  in  the  end  to  work  out  God's 
will  of  love,  and  through  Christ  manifest  to 
the  entire  universe  His  goodness  and  truth. 
Mere  spectacular  display  is  certainly  far  from 
the  inner  thought  of  Jesus  when  He  speaks 
of  His  own  coming  in  glory  with  the 
"angels."  Angels  are  ministering  spirits. 
So  are   the    forces  of  nature,  and  so  may 

130 


Son  of  Man   in  World's   Future 

become  the  wills  of  men.  All  shall  in  the 
end  be  brought  into  harmony  with  His  plan 
and  purpose. 

2.  Christ's  thought  shall  be  the  standard 
of  discrimination  for  all  and  in  all  matters. 
Men  and  things  shall  be  brought  more  and 
more  to  His  ideas  as  a  basis  of  approval  and 
disapproval.  Borrowing  the  imagery  of 
antecedent  methods  of  thought,  Christianity 
has  from  age  to  age  clothed  this  aspect  of  its 
hope  in  vivid  pictures  of  a  specific  event, 
including  terrible  Judgment,  like  that  of  the 
'*  IDies  irce^  dies  illaT  But  the  interest 
underlying  and  conveyed  by  these  is  always 
that  Christ's  will  shall  be  the  rule  not  only 
to  guide,  but  also  to  measure  His  action  after 
it  is  done. 

3.  Relationship  with  Christ  shall  be  free 
and  intimate.  At  present  the  spirit  struggles 
with  a  thousand  hindrances  in  its  effort  to 
reach  the  bosom  of  its  Master.  At  His 
coming  it  shall  have  access  to  Him  unfor- 
bidden and  uninterfered  with  by  any.  There- 
fore it  prays  :  "Amen.    Come,  Lord  Jesus." 


131 


APPENDIX. 

The  phrase  which  constitutes  the  title  of  this 
book  has  a  history  both  in  its  broader  and 
in  its  narrower  sense.  The  latter  is  limited 
to  the  Biblical  and  associated  apocryphal  and 
apocalyptic  writings.  For  a  minuter  study 
of  this  history  Dr.  Driver's  article  ("  Son  of 
Man")  in  Hastings*  Bible  Dictionary  may 
be  taken  as  the  most  comprehensive  guide. 
It  contains  not  only  an  analytic  survey  of  the 
ancient  usage  of  the  phrase,  but  also  a  sum- 
mary of  all  the  principal  interpretations  of  it 
to  the  date  of  publication  (1902).  Kindred 
in  aim,  but  neither  hampered  by  the  limita- 
tions nor  helped  by  the  special  requirements 
of  a  dictionary  or  encyclopedia  article,  is 
Edwin  A.  Abbott's  The  Message  of  the  Son 
of  Man  (London,  Adam  and  Charles  Black, 
1909).  Somewhat  narrower  in  its  scope, 
but   very    keen   and,  from    the  philological 


Appendix 

point  of  view,  invaluable,  is  Dalman*s  dis- 
cussion in  the  Words  of  Jesus  (Eng.  tr., 
Edinburgh,  T.  &  T.  Clark,  1902).  Other 
more  condensed  treatments  of  the  subject 
from  the  same  point  of  view  will  be  found 
in  the  standard  works  on  the  Biblical  Theology 
of  the  New  Testament  (Beyschlag,  Eng.  tr., 
T.  &  T.  Clark,  Edinburgh,  1895)  (vol.  i. 
chap,  iii.) ;  B.  Weiss,  Eng.  tr.,  T.  &  T.  Clark, 
Edinburgh,  1888  (part  i.  chap,  ii.)  ;  G.  B. 
Stevens,  International  Theological  Library, 
Scribner's  Sons,  1899  (part  i.  chap.  iv.). 

Geo.  P.  Gould's  article  in  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  Christ  and  the  Gospels  is  an 
answer  to  the  questions,  Whence,  when  and 
why  did  Jesus  adopt  the  title  ?  and  why 
His  followers  did  not  apply  it  to  Him  ?  and 
leaves  little  to  be  desired. 

Works  on  the  Teaching  of  Jesus  also 
include  sections  discussing  the  use  of  the 
phrase  by  Jesus  as  applied  to  Himself  (of. 
H.  H.  Wendt,  Teaching  of  Jesus  (Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  1892  (vol.  ii.  chap.  i. )  ; 
Stalker,  Christology  of  Jesus  (Hodder  & 
Stoughton,  1900  (chap.  ii.).     Here  must  be 

134 


Appendix 

mentioned  Dr.  A.  B.  Bruce's  Kingdom  of  God 
(T.  &  T.  Clark,  1891),  a  scholarly  but  un- 
technical  discussion  of  the  whole  Teaching  of 
Jesus. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  a  class  of  works 
representing  a  broader  efTbrt  to  reach  funda- 
mental ideas  underlying  all  expository  treat- 
ment have  great  value  in  the  study.  (i) 
Foremost  in  this  class  stands  Professor 
Ernest  F.  Scott's  The  Kingdom  and  the 
Messiah  (T.  &  T.  Clark,  191 1).  It  is 
characterised  by  special  scholarly  insight  into 
the  thought  of  the  period  in  which  the  tide 
was  used.  (2)  W.  L.  Walker's  The  Cross  and 
the  Kingdom  (second  edition,  191 1,  T.  &  T. 
Clark)  stands  out  for  the  sane  theological  de- 
ductions based  upon  recent  critical  research  of 
the  less  radical  type.  (3)  The  late  Dr.  W.  N. 
Clarke's  The  Ideal  of  Jesus  (N.Y.,  Scribner's, 
191 1)  is  a  free  interpretation  in  modern 
terms  of  the  mind  of  Jesus,  but  not  the  result 
of  an  original  study  of  the  words  of  Jesus 
reported  in  the  Gospel.  It  is  based  rather 
on  the  general  results  harvested  in  this  field 
by  New  Testament  specialists. 

135 


Appendix 

A  third  class  of  works  which  may  prove 
valuable  in  organising  courses  kindred  to 
that  of  the  subject  of  this  book  would  include 
the  larger  discussions  of  the  life  and  work  of 
Jesus.  We  can  only  mention  here,  however, 
those  that  are  concerned  with  the  portraiture 
of  His  personality  and  character.  Those  that 
give  an  account  of  His  work  in  its  chrono- 
logical, geographical,  and  antiquarian  interest 
are  numerous  and  most  of  them  familiar. 
Of  the  first-named  type  the  following  will  be 
found  the  most  helpful  :  (i)  David  Smith, 
In  the  Days  of  His  Flesh  (London,  Hodder 
&  Stoughton)  ;  (2)  A.  E.  Garvie,  Studies  in 
the  Inner  Life  of  lesus  (London,  Hodder  & 
Stoughton,  1907)  ;  and  (3)  W.  A.  Grist,  The 
Historic  Christ  in  the  Faith  of  To-day  (N.Y. 
&  London,  Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  191 1). 


136 


INDEX. 


Aramaic  usage,  21. 
Betrayal,  80  f. 
Brutality,  5  ff. 
Carey,  William,  78. 
Cobbler,      waiting      for      the 

Master,  129. 
Death,  instinct  for,  91. 

,,      victory  over,  loi  f. 
Drummond,  Henry,  64. 
Exaltation  through  abasement, 

58. 
Freedom,  human,  50. 
Generosity,  spurious,  60. 
Glory,  109  f. 
God  and  man  akin,  17. 
Gracchi,  the,  iii. 
Havergal,     Frances     Ridley, 

124. 
Institutions,  growth  of,  47. 
Leadership,  price  of,  67. 

„  its  responsibility, 

84  f. 
„  through     service, 

61  f. 
Lodge,  Sir  Oliver,  24. 
Martyn,  Henry,  105. 


Mystics,  125. 
Napoleon,  12,  55. 
Nature,  elemental,  15. 
Nietzsche,  18. 
Osiris  and  Adonis,  98  f. 
Parousia,  Ii8f. 

,,         its    spiritual   value, 
130. 
Plato,  77. 
Redemption,  107. 

, ,  through  suffering, 

68. 
Resurrection  of  Christ,  98. 
Sabbath,  40  f. 
Service,  redemptive,  70. 
Shakespeare,  81  f. 
Sin,  Christ's  view  of,  23  ff. 

„     original,  71. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  103, 
Spurgeon,  124. 
Suffering,  88  f. 
Watchfulness,  121. 
Whitefield,  78. 
William  of  Orange,  66. 
Young,  death  of  the,  105. 
Zebedee,  sons  of,  65. 


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